Chandigarh (Balwinder Singh): Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini mounted a sharp attack on the Congress on Friday, demanding an explanation from the opposition party regarding how many citizens were lifted out of poverty during its nearly 55 years of governance at the Centre. Addressing a press conference in Panchkula concerning the upcoming state-wide Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, the Chief Minister remarked that while previous regimes merely documented poverty figures without implementing durable structural remedies, the decisive welfare programmes spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past decade have successfully brought approximately 250 million people out of multidimensional poverty across the country.
Saini asserted that the Congress leadership has grown increasingly bankrupt of substantive policy alternatives, forcing its functionaries to rely on outsourced political scripts intended solely to defame the Prime Minister. He stated that the Indian electorate has witnessed 25 continuous years of dedicated public service and ascetic governance by Narendra Modi, spanning his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat and as Prime Minister of India. Saini remarked that the opposition’s habitual recourse to abusive rhetoric reflects deepening electoral desperation, urging Congress leaders to introspect on their historical neglect of marginalized communities, women, and the nation’s youth rather than running baseless smear campaigns against a transformative leader.
Highlighting grassroots welfare delivery, the Chief Minister pointed out that the administration has treated housing security as an indispensable component of human dignity, constructing over 160,000 permanent homes for underprivileged households across Haryana alone. He recalled that when the Prime Minister committed to building household sanitation infrastructure during his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Congress spokespersons chose to ridicule the sanitation drive. Saini argued that such mockery did not target the Prime Minister, but instead insulted millions of underprivileged women across rural India who were denied basic privacy and sanitary dignity until the Union Government constructed nearly 120 million household toilets nationwide.
The Chief Minister also criticized the opposition’s conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, observing that Congress politicians attempted to undermine public confidence in indigenously developed vaccines, thereby endangering public health while quietly inoculating themselves. Saini challenged Congress leaders to detail what economic avenues they created when young Indians sought employment under previous regimes. Contrasting that record with contemporary initiatives such as Make in India, Khelo India, and Startup India, he highlighted that Haryana alone has emerged as a thriving enterprise ecosystem hosting more than 12,500 active startups and 19 unicorns, backed by expansive highway networks and industrial corridors.
Responding to queries concerning regional governance in neighbouring Punjab, the Chief Minister scrutinized the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s performance on substance abuse. Saini observed that those who came to power promising to eradicate narcotics within months now stand exposed before the electorate, pointing to a tragic incident where a helpless father pleaded before a state minister regarding the drug menace before ending his life. Concluding his remarks, Saini maintained that democracy requires a responsible opposition, but the Congress has reduced its politics to routine fabrication, failing to comprehend that abusing a leader who has empowered ordinary citizens only serves to alienate the party further from the electorate.
