PM Narendra Modi speaking in the Rajya Sabha
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed in the Rajya Sabha that many of the flagship schemes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government were copied from the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Congress accused the Prime Minister was being economical with the truth.
"To put it politely, the Prime Minister took liberty with the truth and to put it bluntly, many falsehoods were spread," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Modi had alleged that the UPA's Aadhar card scheme, which gives a unique identity number to every Indian, was borrowed from the multipurpose identity card scheme conceived during the Vajpayee period.
Also, Mr Modi claimed, the right to rural employment was an offshoot of the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana of the Vajpayee government. Mr Modi had also alleged that the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan of the Vajpayee government became the UPA's Right to Education Act.
"The BJP had promised a multipurpose identity card and a national register for citizens in their 1999 and 2009 manifestoes. In 2003, just a few months before the elections, the BJP government had said they want to review this proposal. The UPA launched Aadhar in May 2007," added Mr Singhvi.
Similarly, Mr Singhvi argued that one key difference between approaches adopted by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and UPA was that while the NDA announced schemes (that can be withdrawn by the government at any point of time), the UPA converted them into "rights and entitlements."
"Yes the word Sarva Siksha Abhiyan was used by Mr Vajpayee, but in 1993-94, the Congress government under Narasimha Rao had had launched the District Primary Education Programme or DPEP," said Mr Singhvi.
Asked if the Congress planned to move a privilege motion in the Parliament against the Modi government for misleading the Rajya Sabha, Mr Singhvi indicated that the Congress didn't plan to move beyond a rebuttal at a press conference. "We have said what we have to say. Now it's upto the Parliament to decide what it wants to do," he said.