Kejriwal takes veiled swipe at Centre, demands probe into write-off of bad loans | Latest News Delhi

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday took a veiled swipe at the central government over “bad loans worth ₹10 lakh crore been written off”, and urged that such decisions should be considered treason.

“A law should be introduced to declare such activity (writing off bad loans) as treason and people responsible should be punished. It should also be probed how much donations such people gave (to the ruling party). One party believes in parivaarwad (nepotism), while the other believes in dostwad (crony capitalism),” Kejriwal said in a virtual address, adding that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will bring ‘bharatwad’ in the country.

AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been locked in an intense fight over “freebie politics” after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July this year, during a project inauguration programme in Uttar Pradesh, cautioned people against siding with those who try to attract votes by distributing ‘free revadis’ (freebies). The PM said that such practices were harmful for the country.

Kejriwal not only defended the “freebies” being given by the AAP government in Delhi, such as free electricity up to 200 units and free water up to 20,000 litre per month, but also demanded that more such schemes, including unemployment allowance, should be brought about by governments.

“A narrative is being built in the country that free benefits being given by different governments to the poor and middle class should be stopped because the practice is leading to economic stress on the governments. Some are describing them as freebies while other call them ‘revdi’. The same people (who are building this narrative) have written off ₹10 lakh crore of bad loans of their friends using government funds…and they claim that this does not put stress on the economy. They have done that at the cost of the poor. They want writing off of bad loans to continue, but the government’s money should not be used to give free education, healthcare and water to the poor and middleclass,” Kejriwal said.

Nowhere in his speech did Kejriwal name PM Modi or the central government.

The Delhi CM said that many developed countries in the world provide free education, water and healthcare to the people, and that these were the reasons behind their economic success. “Like Denmark, Spain, and Norway, 39 countries provide free and quality education, out of which 27 countries provide free education till the 12th standard, and 12 countries till the 8th standard. I have closely studied all these countries, not even one of them has written off bad loans of their friends,” he said.