Raipur Senior Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chhattisgarh on Sunday. Responding to BJP’s ‘revdi’ (freebies) allegations, Chidambaram said that if the Congress provides subsidies, it is called ‘revdi’, and if they provide it, there is no problem. “If any other party does, it becomes ‘revdi,” he said. He said that there is only one person who talks about one model and one ration card, and that is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I do not agree with that; every state can have its own problems, and work should be done accordingly,” he said. Endorsing Congres party’s demand for a caste-based census, Chidambaram said, “How can reservations be given without numbers?” The BJP has not made any announcements so far and is continuously raising questions about Congress’s announcements. Chidambaram said, “In exams, one student writes answers, and another copies them, but the one who writes first and writes well and he or she passes. BJP is copying our answers. The one who gives a good exam will pass. We know we will give a good exam, so we will pass.” Regarding Chhattisgarh and its Congress government, Chidambaram said that the government is doing good work here. The per capita income in Chhattisgarh has increased to 50,000 rupees. During the third term of the BJP government, agriculture was in deep crisis. In 2017, the government declared drought in 96 tehsils of 21 districts, but farmers did not receive the promised amount under the crop insurance scheme. The BJP government has also failed to deliver on its promises. By the end of 2017-18, Chhattisgarh had a fiscal deficit of 3.34 percent. Chhattisgarh was one of India’s poorest states, with 39 percent of the population living in poverty, 37 percent of children malnourished, and 47 percent of women aged 15-59 suffering from anemia.
