RAIPUR:
While Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister T.S. Singh Deo may have apologised before the Congress Working Committee for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party hopes for it to be a closed chapter, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is in no mood to relent.
On Tuesday again, BJP national vice president and former Chief Minister Raman Singh attacked the Congress over the issue, this time for “strangling” Mr. Singh Deo to draw out an apology.
“He spoke from his heart and they are making him apologise, strangling him. If someone says something honestly, they either send the police or the party threatens them. T.S. Singh Deo said the right thing, the Prime Minister is giving a lot to the State under the federal structure,” said Mr. Singh.
Takes on Baghel
He went on to attack Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, saying that the State had failed to make the most of what it was receiving from the Centre. “What is the tone that Bhupesh Baghel, who snatched away houses from 16 lakh poor, uses while complaining to the Centre? The houses meant for the poor were not constructed and he says nothing has been received from the Centre,” he told reporters in Kabirdham, while reminding that Mr. Singh Deo had relinquished the Panchayati Raj portfolio because homes for the poor were not being constructed.
On June 14, at an event in Raigarh during which Mr. Modi announced several development initiatives for Chhattisgarh, Mr. Singh Deo, as a representative of the State government, had thanked him for giving a “lot of things to Chhattisgarh”.
“We have always worked under the guidance of the Central government, and I do not want to miss out on saying that in my experience, I did not feel any discrimination… In the State, when we asked for something from the Central government, they… never denied help. And I believe that going forward, the State and Centre will work together in all the fields to take our country and State forward,” Mr. Singh Deo had said, even as Mr. Modi responded with folded hands.
