Welfare schemes under attack, but crores of bad loans written off: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal | Delhi News

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (File photo)

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said an atmosphere was being created in the country to withdraw welfare schemes, such as free education and healthcareby terming them “free ki revadi” (freebies). He claimed that public money was being used to write off “bad loans of Rs 10 lakh crore” and such an act should be considered “treason”.
“A law should be introduced to declare such activities as treason and people responsible should be punished. It should also be probed how much donations these (ruling) parties received,” said Kejriwal.
Addressing a digital press conference, the Aam Aadmi Party national convener demanded that the Centre provide free good education, healthcare and 300 units of electricity to every household and unemployment allowance to the jobless.
“There are some people who call the provision of free education and free treatment by government facilities as revadi. An atmosphere is being created in the country against provisions of free education at government schools and free treatment at government hospitals. We are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence and we should be planning on strengthening such facilities,” Kejriwal alleged.
Kejriwal’s comments were an extension of his reaction to PM Narendra Modi’s statement in July while inaugurating an infrastructure project in Uttar Pradesh where the latter had warned people against the culture of collecting votes and being in governance by promising “free revadi”, a popular north Indian sweet distributed during festivals and a metaphor for freebies. He had added this could be “very dangerous” for the development of the country.
The AAP government in Delhi gives 200 units of electricity and 20,000 litres of water free to residents, along with free travel to women and labourers in buses, among other things. The party’s government in Punjab, too, has started giving 300 units of free electricity. This is one of the main “poll guarantees “of AAP in other states where elections are due later this year.
The CM said waiving loans of thousands of crores of “one’s friends and obtaining tenders for them” was actually “free ki revadi”. Without naming anyone, Kejriwal said while one political party was promoting “parivarwaad” (nepotism), another party was pushing “dostwaad” (crony capitalism).
“The time has come to take a pledge on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Independence to end both parivarwaad and dostwaad to bring Bharatwaad (nationalism),” said Kejriwal.
Kejriwal said several rich and developed countries in the world were providing free education, healthcare and unemployment allowance to their citizens, while a narrative was being built in India that such welfare schemes caused losses to the exchequer and must be stopped.
“There are 39 developed countries where education is free for children; 27 of them give free education till Class XII and the rest give free education till Class VIII. Those countries became rich and developed only because they focused on giving free and quality education to their children. They prepare their children for future challenges,” claimed the chief minister.
He added that 16 countries give unemployment allowance to the youth until they get a job and nobody calls it a “free ki revadi” there. “I have studied the model of all these countries and none of them have written off the debts of their friends. None of them have written off the taxes of their friends. These people used the taxpayers’ money to waive loans worth Rs 10 lakh crore of their friends and they believe it does not cause any loss to the exchequer,” Kejriwal said.