Home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday made fun of Rahul Gandhi by claiming that he had made a political impact through a moving depiction of the wretched poverty of a “woman from Bundelkhand” — Kalawati — but did nothing for her even as the Congress remained in power for six years after that.
“Kalawati ke liye kya kiya (What did he do for Kalawati)?” Shah histrionically whispered in Parliament, triggering peals of laughter from the BJP members, while boasting that it was the Narendra Modi government that provided her with a house, electricity, toilet, gas, food and health care. The powerful politician, the No. 2 in the government, appeared to have succeeded in denting Rahul’s credentials.
Barely hours after Shah’s bluster emerged a voice of conscience from a village in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal — not Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand, as the home minister had claimed. Kalawati said: “Whatever help I got was because of Rahul Gandhi. My life changed; my family was back on track. (The) Modi (government) is lying. I got nothing from them.”
Rahul had met Kalawati in 2008 during a visit to Maharashtra. Her husband had committed suicide in 2005, leaving behind seven daughters and two sons. While Rahul gave her Rs 3 lakh immediately, more help started pouring in after he drew attention to her story in his speech in the Lok Sabha. Sulabh International gave Rs 30 lakh, and government aid for a house was sanctioned. She built her house, toilet and other infrastructure before 2014, when Narendra Modi came to power.
Shah, as it turns out, had scored a political point with a lie. Evan Davis, the author of the book Post-Truth, had written: “If someone has an incentive to lie to us, we would never be so silly as to trust them…. The choice of false statement says something honest about the communicator.”
The Congress called out the lie, putting out an old interview of Kalawati with the BBC in which she recounted how her life changed after meeting Rahul.
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh, who often says Modi can’t speak the truth even by mistake, tweeted: “Amit Shah is following the footsteps of his sahib. Forget election rallies, he is saying anything in Parliament to mislead the nation. What Rahul did after meeting her has been clearly articulated by Kalawati herself. Rahul doesn’t have the habit of bragging; he quietly helped the family of the horrific Delhi rape victim publicly known as Nirbhaya.”
Congress social media head Supriya Shrinate also issued a statement, saying it was necessary “to expose the lies of the failed home minister” who is unfortunately retained despite the turmoil over the CAA-NRC, Delhi riots, Manipur violence and the Haryana riots. She said: “You said there is no blot on the Modi government in nine years and counted scams of the UPA government which have not been proved. The court acquitted Rajiv Gandhi in Bofors and found nothing wrong in the 2G allocation. Why do you lie so much?”
Shrinate added: “While defaming the Congress for corruption, tell us why your, and your Saheb’s, mouth do not open on questions about Adani? What about the recent CAG findings on a massive scam in the Ayushman Bharat scheme? The CAG has found over 7.5 lakh people are registered on one mobile number.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also raised the purported Ayushman Bharat scam, saying: “This is the true face of the Modi government’s corruption — the real face of Corruption Quit India! The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) has exposed a mega scam in the much-publicised health scheme Ayushman Bharat. The CAG findings are just the tip of the iceberg; only a few aspects have been examined.”
Kharge added: “Lakhs of beneficiaries are linked to the same mobile numbers. Payments have been made even in the name of the dead. There are 43,000 families among the beneficiaries having members ranging from 11 to 201 each. Fraud and deceit have tormented the patients. The Modi government, which claims to do public welfare, is a champion of cheating the poor.”
Shrinate pointed to the home minister’s reluctance to talk about Chinese intrusions while bragging about hitting Pakistan in their territory. “Why have you allowed China to capture our territory? Why has trade with China soared, making it the top business partner? Why is Modi giving a clean chit to China, saying nobody has entered? Why are we not allowed access to patrolling points we patrolled traditionally? Why is a buffer zone created in our territory? Instead of banning apps, tell the nation what transpired at the meeting with Xi Jinping at Bali.”
She also questioned Shah’s claim that the BJP never disrupted Parliament, saying: “The BJP forced the washout of two full sessions and created so much trouble in 2004 that Manmohan Singh had to table his speech on the motion of thanks to the President’s address. But what you said in the end — that I am a sensitive person — made the atmosphere lighter. Keep cracking such jokes.”
