Corporates coming to loot resources, Modi, Shah supporting them: Kharge in Chhattisgarh

“They are cutting lakhs of trees (in Hasdeo Forest) and oxygen levels are going down. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is destroying the lives of our tribal brothers and the people of Chhattisgarh… Many corporates are coming here to loot minerals like coal and iron… And Modi and Shah are supporting them,” said the Congress president.

“Our jal, jungle and zameen need to be protected and hence we need to be united… They (BJP) say we made (Droupadi) Murmu President, (Ram Nath) Kovind President, but why? To steal our resources, our jungle, jal and zameen. Today people like Adani and Ambani are occupying it,” he said.

Targeting Shah, who has visited Chhattisgarh multiple times since 2024 to take stock of the anti-Maoist operations, Kharge said, “Why is (Amit) Shah coming again and again… not to see your condition but to find out where iron, steel and coal are. He is not coming here for anything else.”

He claimed that Shah, who is also the Cooperation Minister, will make rich people directors in India’s first national cooperative university and dared him to appoint people from poor families to the posts.

“Shah is setting up a cooperative federal university… for whom? Not for the poor but the rich who will be made its directors. When I was the cooperation minister in Karnataka… I ensured people from poor families got a chance to become directors in cooperative societies. I dare you (Shah) to do this.”

Calling Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai “a slave who takes instructions from Delhi before taking any decision”, Kharge said, “Whatever our CM (former CM Bhupesh Baghel) said used to happen. Can he (Sai) do that? Whatever Shah and Modi-ji say…he follows their instructions. The Chief Minister sits when asked to sit and stands when he is asked to stand. Hence, he was made the CM… He bears all insults… This is also an insult to Chhattisgarh.”

The Congress president claimed liquor shops are increasing in Chhattisgarh. “They shut all the 17 welfare schemes started by the Congress government in Chhattisgarh but opened 67 new liquor shops… Spurious liquor is also being sold. We brought the Food Security Act for the poor. But they are selling liquor which will affect your health.”

Kharge accused the state government of not providing diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer to farmers, not taking steps to check rising prices of petrol, diesel, LPG, not providing Minimum Support Price (MSP) on forest produce like the previous Congress government used to do, not acting on the Reservation Bill passed by previous government and awaiting the Governor’s nod, among other issues. He alleged the BJP was trying to intimidate “everyone” in the country and misusing central probe agencies against its opponents.

Hitting out at PM Modi, Kharge said he had time to travel to foreign nations, but has no time to visit Manipur, which has been seeing ethnic clashes since May 2023.

“The BJP has been trying to intimidate our leaders using central agencies like the ED and I-T, but we will never be scared. Our party leaders in Chhattisgarh, including former CM (Baghel), are being harassed,” he told the gathering.

“They (BJP) also tried to implicate (Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul ji in the National Herald case. They always try to defame the Congress,” Kharge maintained.

The BJP makes lots of promises before polls, but forgets them after coming to power, the Congress president said.