Taking a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the freebies issue, Union Minster for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said that the “rewari politics” cannot go on if India has to become a developed nation by 2047.

Mr. Puri was speaking at an event to flag off 30 mobile campaign vans for the upcoming MCD elections from the Delhi BJP head office. He said that Delhi’s civic elections were also “crucial” for the country.

Global position

He said, “Our economy reached the fifth place recently and is likely to reach the third place globally by 2030. And to go further from there, Prime Minster Narendra Modi had said that we have to become a developed nation by 2047 when India completes 100 years of its Independence.”

“Becoming a developed nation means that the kind of rewari politics some people are doing cannot continue,” he added, while slamming the AAP-led Delhi government for “not implementing good schemes from the Centre like Ayushman Bharat and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana”.

Parties campaigning

The BJP and AAP have started campaigning aggressively after the State Election Commission announced that the polling will be held on December 4 and counting of votes will happen on December 7. While the BJP, which has been in power for 15 years, is seeking a fourth term, AAP is looking to make its debut in the corporation.

Of late, there has been a debate on the freebies issue with Mr. Modi and other BJP leaders saying that the culture was “very dangerous” for the country and its economy. On the other hand, other political parties, including AAP, have maintained that welfare schemes are needed to help the poor who have been burdened by the rising inflation. 

Mr. Puri also accused AAP of spending more on advertisements than what is spent on a scheme. “Here [in Delhi] if they buy a machine for ₹10 then they spend ₹1,000 on advertising it,” he said.