To Make Modi Rally Successful, Vasundhara Govt Uses Beneficiaries' Schemes Fund

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Jaipur on Saturday to address a gathering of around 2.5 lakh beneficiaries of 12 welfare schemes run by the BJP government at the Centre and in the State. It’s been a huge embarrassment for the PM and his party, as most of the beneficiaries were found complaining in some cases that they did not receive any fund or received a single instalment of these schemes.

And what was seen as big turn out in the rally held in Jaipur was nothing but the State governments effort to make it look “successful”.

Media reports also suggest that seven crore were spent to bring the beneficiaries to attend the Modi's rally, were largely taken from the funds for the schemes; the question then arises how heavy expense incurred by Vasundhara Raje's BJP government used to ferry people of public money to his rally. Beneficiaries were allowed only wearing sashes, wristbands representing the various government schemes, without the sashes no one was allowed to enter.

Out of these schemes, four have been introduced by the centre while eight schemes were launched under chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia led state government.

All the collectors were asked to bring an average of 9,300 people from their districts across the state. According to the media reports, these 7 million rupees were taken from the funds of these schemes. It was said by the government representatives that it was a government event but everybody knows that elections are going to be held in the state and it can be said that this is BJP's election campaign. The question here is whether it is appropriate to use the state machinery and the public's money in such a way as to propagate the party?

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According to an online media portal, many people who were brought in the rally did not benefit, many people were brought forcefully and some came for their complaints. A woman was brought, said that if she does not come in the rally, she will not be given the wages under the MNREGA scheme. Most of the people said that they did not get the benefit of schemes, so hey came to complain to the Prime Minister. Instead of beneficiaries of twelve schemes, the recorded voice of the beneficiaries were played praising Modi and chief minister. Beneficiaries were also not allowed to say a word to the Prime Minister.

Speaking to NewsClick, Kavita Srivastava, president, Rajasthan chapter of People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) said, "It has become very clear that BJP was not sure that could mobilise their own cadre of 2.5 lakh people so they used the people on the pretext of beneficiaries. I personally have not met any people who got any house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)."

She further added that for the first time people get free gas connections under the Ujjwala Yojana but from the second time, they have to charge for the gas, in that condition they start cooking without gas.

Meanwhile, people wearing black or carrying any black cloth on them were kept out of rally. The restriction was apparently meant to rule out any chance of a protest at the venue. Policemen were seen checking people for any piece of black cloth and anyone wearing a black shirt was not allowed in.

Furthermore, people were also seen shredding to bits of Swachh Bharat when there were forced to defecate in the open as there was no arrangements for the toilets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Jaipur on Saturday to address a gathering of around 2.5 lakh beneficiaries of 12 welfare schemes run by the BJP government at centre and in the state but in a big embarrassment to the PM and his party, most of the beneficiaries were found complaining that they did not receive any fund either got only single instalment of the schemes, the state government also misused government machinery to make success this rally.

Media reports also suggest that seven crore were spent to bring the beneficiaries to attend the Modi's rally, were largely taken from the funds for the schemes; the question then arises how heavy expense incurred by Vasundhara Raje's BJP government used to ferry people of public money to his rally. Beneficiaries were allowed only wearing sashes, wristbands representing the various government schemes, without the sashes no one was allowed to enter.

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Out of these schemes, four have been introduced by the centre while eight schemes were launched under chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia led state government.

All the collectors were asked to bring an average of 9,300 people from their districts across the state. According to the media reports, these 7 million rupees were taken from the funds of these schemes. It was said by the government that it was a government event but everybody knows that elections are going to be held in the state and it can be said that this is BJP's election campaign. The question here is whether it is appropriate to use the state machinery and the public's money in such a way as to propagate the party?

According to a media report, many people who were brought in the rally did not benefit, many people were forcibly brought and some brought their complaints. According to a media report, a woman was brought to her saying that if she does not come in the rally, she will not be given the wages given under the MNREGA scheme. People said that they did not get the benefit of schemes, so that they came to complain to the Prime Minister. But in its program instead of the 12 beneficiaries of twelve schemes, the recorded voice of the beneficiaries in which they told how they benefited from the scheme. After that 12 people gave flowers to the Prime Minister. Apart from this, in this "so-called" public hearing no opportunity was given to the public to ask questions or complain.

Speaking to NewsClick, Kavita Srivastava, president, Rajasthan chapter of People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) said, "It has become very clear that BJP was not sure that could mobilise their own cadre of 2.5 lakh people so they used the people on the pretext of beneficiaries. I personally have not met any people who got any house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)."

She further added that for the first time people get free gas connections under the Ujjwala Yojana but from the second time, they have to charge for the gas, in that condition they start cooking without gas.

Meanwhile, people wearing black or carrying any black cloth on them were kept out of rally. The restriction was apparently meant to rule out any chance of a protest at the venue. Policemen were seen checking people for any piece of black cloth and anyone wearing a black shirt was not allowed in.

Furthermore, people were also seen shading to bits of Swachh Bharat when there were forced to defecate in the open as there was no arrangements for the toilets.