I’ll bet you ₹15 lakh: Mahua Moitra’s jibe at Nirmala Sitharaman on freebies

In an event on Saturday, the Finance Minister said that the Modi government aims to empower everyone through saturation of the existing welfare schemes as every Indian citizen deserves access to basic facilities.

“Every Indian citizen deserves to have access to basic facilities without getting beholden to anybody. Our approach is one of empowerment through saturation of existing schemes rather than that of entitlement,” FM said.

She further said, “if you have reached all of them who are eligible for something then you have achieved saturation,” adding, “there have been so many attempts to make the lives of the poor better in the last 75 years.”

In response to these remarks, Mahua Moitra tweeted, “Err…Madam..I’ll bet you ₹15 lakh you couldn’t tell Modiji this to his face.”

“Do it but make sure you understand the financial level of your state, the fiscal strength of your state and having promised it during the election, you won, you come back, ensure that you fulfil it because you have given a word and how, by making sure that your budget will have a provision for it,” the screenshot shared by Mahua Moitra read.

Currently, politicians and parties are debating over ‘freebies’ and welfare schemes. Notably, the saturation of the welfare scheme indicates that all entitled beneficiaries will receive the facilities.

According to the Finance Minister, the difference between all the garibi hataos (slogans) of the world and now — the approach to development that Prime Minister Narendra Modi employs — even as he brings in schemes that benefit the needy people, is by the principle of saturation so that they cover everybody eligible.

The FM on Thursday alleged that Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal has given a perverse twist to the debate on freebies. She said, “Delhi Chief Minister has given perverse twist to the debate on freebies. Health and education have never been called freebies. No Indian government has ever denied them. So classifying education and health as freebies, Kerjiwal is trying to bring in a sense of worry and fear in minds of poor.” She added that there should be a genuine debate on this matter.

The freebies versus welfare debate came in the limelight after PM Modi’s ‘revdi’ jibe that was followed after Kejriwal promised free electricity and other facilities including for women and pensioners in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh once selected in the election.

First article