BJP ‘Rubs Salt Into Wound of UP Poor’ with Modi, Yogi Images on Ration Packets

Lucknow: With less than three months before the crucial Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched its campaign with packets of salt, edible oil and chickpeas bearing photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath distributed through the 80,000-plus ration shops across the state as part of the Nishulk Ration Vitaran Mahabhiyan on Sunday.

The ration packets bearing the slogan ‘Soch imandaar, kaam damdaar (Honest thinking, solid work), being used by the BJP in its Assembly elections campaign.

According to the government, 15 crore ration card users in UP would receive double the free rations under the extended massive distribution campaign. The scheme, under which each family will get about 10 kg of food grains, edible oil and sugar under two separate schemes, will continue till Holi.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), a free ration scheme, was launched by the Centre in March 2020 during the outbreak of the pandemic. The scheme, which has benefited around 15 crore people in UP, was scheduled to end on November 30.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on the occasion of Deepotsava celebrations in Ayodhya announced that PMGKAY would be extended till Holi adding that the beneficiaries would also be provided one litre of edible oil and one kg of salt. Antyodaya Anna Yojana cardholders on the other hand will get one kg each of sugar and pulses.

Announcing the extended phase of the scheme, Adityanath had made a scathing attack on the Opposition saying, “During the rule of the previous government, people died of starvation. Before 2017, the food grains of the poor used to go to the Mafia and middlemen. But our double-engine government implemented the scheme to give free food grains for two years to 80 crore needy people in the country and 15 crore needy people in the state during the pandemic.”

“Once again, we are taking forward the free food grains distribution programme under the National Food Security Act. About 80 crore people in the country and 15 crore in UP will benefit,” Adityanath had added.

‘FUN OF POOR PEOPLE’

The free ration distribution is being seen as the BJP’s fresh attempt to reach out to the poor, hit by the economic slowdown and the reverse migration during the pandemic’s first wave. The Congress termed the distribution of food packets as ridiculing the poor and the Samajwadi Party (SP) dubbed the exercise as “branding of the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls”.

“This seems to be a publicity stunt by the BJP government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi [at the Centre] and chief minister Yogi Adityanath [in UP]. In fact, this has ridiculed the poor people,” UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh told Newsclick.

Singh added that “instead of providing jobs to people who lost their livelihood during the pandemic, they are distributing food packets”. Terming the exercise as “rubbing salt into the wound of poor people”, he said, “They are trying to play with the self-respect of the poor”.

Pointing to the photographs of Modi and Adityanath on the ration packets, an SP leader told Newsclick that the packets are more expensive than the food grains inside adding, “this is purely a branding exercise ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections since the BJP knows it very well that it hasn’t done any work in the past five years.”

The opposition parties alleged that the BJP is resorting to such eyewash to divert the attention of the poor. The scheme will end after the elections and all such items will again be costly, they further alleged. 

A couple of beneficiaries in Gorakhpur, Barabanki and Sharvawasti who received the free ration on Sunday told Newsclick that they were happy but also worried about their future when the scheme will end after March. 

“The government’s initiative is fine but how a litre of edible oil and one kg of sugar, chickpeas and pulses will be helpful to a family of four-five members? The government should also have an idea about the quantity of food grains being distributed. Otherwise, it would be considered an election gimmick and making fun of poor people,” Ramlati, a beneficiary in Haidargarh, Barabanki district, said.

Another beneficiary in Adityanath’s hometown Gorakhpur said that the government will provide several things to the poor till the elections only to treat them like orphans later.