The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back at the Congress moments after it accused the ruling party of ‘politicising’ the bureaucracy and armed forces over a purported notification asking government officers to ‘celebrate and showcase’ the Centre’s achievements in past nine years. Snubbing his counterpart, BJP president JP Nadda said he is ‘baffled’ by Congress’ objection with ‘public servants reaching the grassroots to ensure saturation of schemes’.

Earlier in the day, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleged that a government notification has directed senior officers including those holding the ranks as high as joint secretary and director to be deployed as ‘Rath Prabharis’ in all 756 districts in the country to ‘showcase achievements of the last nine years of Government of India’. Kharge further alleged the move as a a clear violation of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules which bars government servants from taking part in any political activity, adding that it ‘blatantly turns them into political workers of the ruling party’.

Saturation of schemes

Responding to Kharge’s letter, Nadda said the government orders was to ensure that the public services reach at the grassroot levels to further enabling the ‘saturation of (government) schemes’, which, the BJP chief said, maybe an ‘alien concept’ for the Congress.

“If the Modi Govt wants to ensure saturation of all schemes and ensure all beneficiaries are reached, nobody who has the interest of the poor in his mind can have a problem. But Congress only has an interest in keeping the poor in poverty and hence their opposition to the saturation drive,” he said.

Recalled PM Modi’s 2019 allegation against Congress

While rubbishing Kharge’s ‘Rath Prabhari’ allegations, Nadda further took a swipe against the Congress by recalling PM Modi’s 2019 allegation in which he said former PM Rajiv Gandhi and his family had used the Navy’s Centaur-class aircraft class INS Viraat as its ‘personal taxi’. However, PM Modi’s allegations were dismissed by former commanding officer of INS Viraat.

“Regarding opposition to a ‘Rath’ it is a fit use of public resources unlike using warships as personal yachts,” Nadda said