Election 2019: Ajit Singh addressed a rally in Deoband with Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav
RLD chief Ajit Singh took a swipe at the BJP's "achche din" (good times) promise on Sunday, saying the good days were not meant for the people of the country but for Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.
Addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband, which witnessed the top leadership of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance coming on one platform to kick-off the joint campaign of the "mahagathbandhan" for the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls slated for April 11, Mr Singh said, "What has PM Modi done in five years? He was not talking about your achche din, but his own achche din."
Elated over the massive turnout at the rally, Ajit Singh, a prominent Jat leader from the area, said it was an indication that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was going to be wiped out in the coming polls.
"The BJP will not just be defeated but will be wiped out," he said, adding that the Constitution had given the right to the people of the country to evaluate the performance of a government and, if not satisfied, change it in five years.
"The coming election will decide the future of democracy...four Supreme Court judges, for the first time in 70 years, said democracy was facing a threat in the country.... Modi sahab has paralysed all constitutional agencies. Today, the CBI and the ED are being used to harass political opponents," the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief said.
Alleging that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was not consulted during demonetisation and the employment-related report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) was kept under the wraps, he said, "If Modi wins, then as (BJP chief) Amit Shah says, he will be in power for the next 50 years and as (BJP MP) Sakshi Maharaj says, this would be the last election."
"If the power of voting given by (BR) Ambedkar is taken away, then there will be no one to listen to you," he said.
On PM Modi, the former Union minister said in his "Mann ki Baat" radio programme, the prime minister said he was a "fakir" (a religious ascetic who lives on alms), who would leave with his bag one day.
"Oh god, let us all be fakir like him...we will wear new suits and tour the entire world and when we fail to fulfil our responsibilities, we will say bye bye, I am a fakir...will you keep such a government or kick it out?," he asked the gathering.
The veteran leader assured the farmers that the Swaminathan Commission report would be implemented, 150 per cent of the production cost would be given to them and cane prices would be cleared in 14 days after a new government came to power.
"At Baghpat, Modi said the cane price would be Rs 400 per quintal...During the days of (former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers) Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the rates were revised, but not a single paise was increased by the Yogi (Adityanath) government," Ajit Singh, who is also the candidate from Muzaffarnagar in the upcoming polls, said.
He alleged that the government was not taking any action on the sugar mill owners even though the courts had directed them to clear the farmers'' dues, while stressing that the economy of western Uttar Pradesh was based on cane.
Mr Singh also recalled his works in the interest of the cane growers of the area.
"Everyone knows that the BJP is anti-farmers and that it never won in the villages...it has come to power only because of riots and there is no other reason for it...people in the villages say Modi and Yogi are grazing our crops," he said, referring to the stray cattle menace in the villages.
The RLD chief, who wants to carry forward the legacy of his father late Chaudhary Charan Singh -- a former prime minister who was regarded as a farmers' leader -- said lathis were used on farmers when they marched to Delhi and no BJP MP stood by them, while asserting that farmers would not pardon the saffron party.
He also alleged that the BJP had come to power in 2014 because of riots as it had no presence in the western parts of Uttar Pradesh.
Claiming that the rate of unemployment had increased under the Modi government, Ajit Singh said "Modi asks the youth to make pakodas...when pakodas are eaten, someone will make them, what is the government's contribution in it."
Pointing out that PM Modi had promised to put Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of all the citizens after coming to power in 2014, the RLD chief said, "He never speaks the truth. His parents have not advised him to speak the truth."
On the BJP government's promise of giving Rs 2,000 to farmers, he said farmers did not need alms but the right remuneration for their produce.
"Modi is the prime minister of the BJP and he cannot be the PM of all," Mr Singh said.
This was the first joint election meeting of the "mahagathbandhan" in western Uttar Pradesh, parts of which go to the polls in the first phase on April 11.