BJP is criticised by Chidambaram for having “absolute intolerance to any criticism”
Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday blasted the saffron party for its “absolute intolerance to any criticism” in response to four BJP MPs criticising Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for criticising the Railways in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the Odisha train tragedy.
“Kharge is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha,” Chidambaram said on Twitter. He has the right to email the prime minister. People in a functioning democracy anticipate a response from the prime minister to the letter. But because of the nature of our democracy, the prime minister won’t think it appropriate to respond.
Instead, four BJP lawmakers decide to submit a reply that is devoid of supporting evidence and weak in its reasoning. Kharge’s well-founded critique is fully supported by two CAG findings that were delivered in December 2022.
“A calamity like Balasore was predicted in a letter from the Principal Chief Operations Manager of the SW Railway dated February 9, 2023. I am certain that the letter was neglected and collecting dust in a file at the S W Railway. Will the BJP MPs let us know what happened to the letter?
His comments came a day after four BJP MPs, including Tejashwi Surya, described the critique as being “high on rhetoric and low on facts,” adding that it was inappropriate for a politician of Kharge’s standing to write letters to the Prime Minister based on claims made by the “WhatsApp University.”
The BJP members of parliament sent Kharge a four-page letter in which they stated: “In response to your recent letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, we must say, we found it high on rhetoric and low on facts.”
As a former minister of railways, Kharge, the BJP MPs said, “one would expect your discernment of the situation to be infused with depth and understanding.”
“However, your most recent correspondence with us implies different. As a result, we must provide you with factual clarifications to your assumptions, they continued.
In response to Kharge’s criticism of the job situation, they said that in the previous nine years, the Railways has recruited 4.58 lakh new appointees and that the hiring process for 1.52 lakh applicants is still underway.
The MPs said, “Therefore, in our ten years, we would appoint more than 6.1 lakh young people, which is nearly 50% more than of 4.11 lakh candidates appointed during the ten years of UPA.”
Additionally, the letter said that 5,518 recently hired Assistant Loco Pilots “quash your allegations about neglecting this sector.”
They responded to the Rajya Sabha member of the Congress by stating that “there was no collision in Mysore as stated in your letter.”
“For a leader of your calibre, sending letters to the PM based on information obtained from ‘WhatsApp University’ is inappropriate. However, maybe you feel compelled to repeat false information as reality like the Vice-Chancellor of WhatsApp University, they said.
Following Kharge’s letter to Modi on June 2 on the sad train disaster that killed 288 people and wounded over 800 others in Odisha’s Balasore district, the BJP leaders made their comments.
