Arvind Kejriwal asks why free facilities are opposed; Nirmala Sitharaman says Delhi CM giving ‘perverse twist’ to debate on freebies | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday once again questioned the opposition to free schemes to the public and said that something seems “seriously wrong” with Centre’s finances.
“The way the central government is opposing free facilities to the people, it creates suspicion if the financial condition of the central government is very bad. Why is there so much opposition?” Kejriwal asked in an online address to the media persons.
He added that for the last 70 to 75 years, free education has been given in government schools and free medicines are provided, but what has happened now that these things are opposed?

“Centre wrote off loans of ‘friends’ and waived taxes worth Rs 5 lakh crore of super rich people,” said Kejriwal.
Kejriwal said the government has also reduced the money given to states.
“Where has all the money gone? The government collects more tax than 2014. Then where is the money going? We are celebrating 75 years of Independence, but for the first time a tax has been imposed on the wheat and rice of the poor. No government had taken such steps before. What was the need?” he wondered.
“Half the students will remain uneducated if fees are collected in government schools. From where will the poor bring money,” Kejriwal asked.

Meanwhile, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman hit out at Kejriwal for giving a “perverse twist” to the debate on freebies, saying the AAP leader’s comments are an attempt to create fears in the minds of the poor.
A day after Kejriwal joined the debate on freebies calling for a referendum on spending taxpayers’ money on healthcare and education, Sitharaman said that spending on these two has never been called or classified as freebies since Independence and to drag them now into the debate is to give a perverse twist.
“Delhi Chief Minister has given perverse twist to the debate on freebies. Health and education have never been called freebies,” she told reporters here.
“No Indian government has ever denied them since Independence. So, by classifying education and health as freebies, Kerjiwal is trying to bring in a sense of worry and fear in minds of poor,” she said.
Earlier in the day, the BJP claimed that while the central government’s welfare policies empower different deprived sections of society with targeted schemes, some parties’ engage in ‘revdi’ culture by dishing out freebies for everyone for political gains.
“Revdi culture is about dishing out lollipops for political gains and it makes no transformation to people’s lives. It misuses taxpayers’ money with the rich benefiting at the cost of the poor,” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said as he targeted Kejriwal for his counter-offensive after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s denunciation of freebies.
– With agency inputs