New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday highlighted the achievements made under the Narendra Modi government’s Digital India initiative and slammed the Congress for questioning its success, saying people have rejected it and would continue to do so because of its “destructive” model of “corruption, parivarvad and namazvad”.
BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari rejected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s claim that lakhs of villages are yet to be covered under the BharatNet project, saying the truth is that the internet has reached 95 per cent of the villages in the country.
“While there were just 27 crore internet connections during the Congress rule, there are 97 crore internet connections today. This is the truth and the success of Digital India. But, the Congress will not accept it,” he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.
Listing the achievements made under the Digital India mission launched a decade ago, Bhandari said 50 per cent of the global transactions are happening in India due to the success of the initiative and its biggest beneficiaries are the poor as well as those from the middle class and lower middle class.
Beneficiaries of various schemes are getting financial assistance directly into their bank accounts through direct benefit transfer (DBT) due to the success of the Digital India initiative under Modi’s leadership, he said.
“There are two models before the people of the country today. One is PM Modi’s model of development and the other is the opposition’s model of ‘bhrashtachar’ (corruption), ‘parivarvad’ (dynasty politics) and ‘namazwad’ (Muslim appeasement), which are destructive,” he said.
The BJP spokesperson said the country has chosen the development model of Prime Minister Modi for its success on various fronts and rejected the “anti-people” model of the Congress.
The country will continue to reject “vinash” (destruction), “parivarvad”, “bhrashtachar” and “namazwaad” of the opposition because it is “inherently” anti-people and anti-development, he added.
Bhandari said, “Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi used to say that for every rupee (targeted towards welfare and poverty alleviation) only 15 paise reaches the poor. Today, the same thing is happening in the states ruled by the Congress and other opposition parties.”
That’s why people have been rejecting the opposition and choosing PM Modi’s model of development, he added.
“Look at the two parallels — INDI alliance’s ‘bhrashtachar’, INDI alliance means ‘namazwaad’, INDI alliance means ‘vinashvaad’. PM Modi government means ‘vikas (development), vikas vikas’,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi asserted on Tuesday that the Digital India initiative launched a decade ago bridged the digital divide between haves and have-nots, and democratised opportunity, stressing that it has become a people’s movement.
In a post on LinkedIn, he said while decades were spent doubting the ability of Indians to use technology, his government changed this approach and trusted the ability of citizens to use technology.
Modi asserted that his government used technology to eliminate the gap between the haves and the have-nots, he added.
The Congress claimed the fine print of its “lofty claims” is marred by unfulfilled promises, digital exclusion of the marginalised, hurting privacy and weakening transparency.
Questioning the government’s claims of the success of the initiative that completed 10 years, Kharge cited data like villages and schools that are yet to get broadband connectivity, the rising debt of state-owned telecom companies MTNL and BSNL and a surge in cyber crimes.
At the same time, the opposition party sought to take credit for laying the foundation of several pathbreaking initiatives like Aadhaar and UPI during its rule.
