Bengaluru(PTI): JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said there is a big question on the ruling BJP's claims of "Acche Din" (good days), as he referred to RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's statement expressing concern over 'rising income inequality' and unemployment in the country.
The former Chief Minister, in a series of tweets, said the statement by a top leader of RSS, which is the ideological parent-organization of the ruling party, holds a mirror to the present condition in the country.
"BJP's mother-root, RSS' general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's statement that economic inequality, poverty, and unemployment are very dangerous holds a mirror to the present condition in India. Now, there are big questions on the claims of Acche Din," Kumaraswamy said.
Stating that one doesn't require expertise to say who has flourished, who has lost everything in the last seven years of BJP rule, he said Hosabale himself has said that 20 crore people are below the poverty line and four crore youth unemployed. "Then, who became rich in the last 7 years?"
Hosabale on Sunday expressed concern over alleged rising income inequality and unemployment, asserting that poverty is posing as a "demon-like challenge in front of us."
He, however, has said several steps have been taken in the last few years to address this challenge.
Pointing out that malnutrition is rampant across the country and there is no drinking water in a number of villages, Kumaraswamy said, "When this is the truth, why is there fear to introspect 'Acche Din'? Hosable has spoken the truth of what surveys also say."
"Acche Din" is the ruling BJP's slogan which has been used by the J P Nadda-led party and its leaders since the time the party came to power in 2014.
Warning not to be surprised if increasing economic inequality leads to "bigger rage", Kumaraswamy said the country getting caught in the web of the corporate world is not a good sign. "People's frustration and impatience are increasing day by day. It is time the BJP woke up," added the son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.
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Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."