Amid debate over freebies culture, Anurag Thakur’s ‘Jhootmantri’ jibe at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sharpened its verbal attack against Aam Aadmi Party over the latter’s stand on freebies culture. In a fresh development, Union Minister Anurag Thakur called AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal ‘Jhootmantri’, the one who spreads lies.

"Arvind Kejriwal is ‘Jhootmantri’ and spread lies and fears. He fought an election on the issue of corruption but is running a corrupt government. Their health minister is in jail, while the health system including Mohalla clinics are in shambles," told Union Minister Anurag Thakur to ANI today.

The BJP has taken on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with its full force in refuting his claims about the BJP seeking withdrawal of subsidies in the education and health sectors.

Kejriwal came under heavy attack from BJP on Thursday with BJP hitting out against the "perverse twist" given by him on the debate on freebies and alleging that his politics was all about "revdi (freebie) culture".

BJP leader Amit Malviya said that successive governments have been caring for the poor and Kejriwal cannot claim the credit for measures taken by a welfare government.

"In what seems like an inadvertent slip, Kejriwal admits that various governments, for the last 70-75 years, have been providing free education, food and healthcare to the poor. That is a welfare state. Arvind Kejriwal can’t claim the credit. His politics, however, is all about ‘revdi culture’," he said.

BJP spokesperson RP Singh also accused Delhi Chief Minister of "unbridled spends on only ads".

"Kejriwal has perfected a model which is about freebies for the certain media and allied ecosystem. Unbridled spends on only ads and ads and nothing else. This is what allows @ArvindKejriwal to blatantly lie in full public glare knowing media won’t expose him," Singh said.

Former Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said Kejriwal has been "resorting to lies" and said he had failed to fulfil his promises. He alleged that Kejriwal is not a man of his words.

"He has become a lying machine and he is not hesitant about it. A number of times, he made a U-turn over controversial statements made by him. A number of times he has apologized for his statements. Despite this, he continues to make such remarks,” Tiwari said.

Whenever the central government makes schemes, it aims to serve people for their overall development. Earlier, during the days of election campaigning, Kejriwal said ‘sabke paani ke bill maaf, bijli half’. Did it happen for all people of Delhi? This is called revdi culture. He (Kejriwal) is not a man of his words," Tiwari said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that promising and distributing freebies by political parties during elections is a "serious issue" and an amount has to be spent on infrastructure etc. The apex court was hearing a plea seeking direction to seize election symbols and deregister political parties that promised to distribute irrational freebies from public funds.

A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Krishna Murari told parties in the case: "Economy losing money and welfare of people, both have to be balanced. That is why, this debate and there must be someone who can put their vision and thoughts. Please submit something." 

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