Congress ‘expert’ in misleading public by making promises just for elections: Sitharaman

Jaipur, Apr 16 (PTI) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Tuesday targeted the Congress, saying it is an “expert” in misleading the public by making promises just for the sake of elections and forgetting them after taking votes.

“The Congress party is an expert in making promises just for the sake of elections, misleading the public, taking votes and then forgetting about it,” Sitharaman told reporters at a press conference.

She also hit out at the previous Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan over restoring the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for government employees.

She said, “The previous Congress government in the state made a wrong and impossible promise and tried to implement it even though its own party people had told it not to do so.”

She said the Congress made the same promise in the Himachal Pradesh elections and won too.

After its implementation here, Rajasthan’s former chief minister said the money that went to the central pool through the National Pension Scheme (NPS) should be returned.

“Even then, I said that money cannot be returned even to the state government. That money is employees’ money. That will go to the employees and not to the government,” she said.

Sitharaman said the Congress has not included this issue in its manifesto for this Lok Sabha election.

“Make promises, mislead people, take votes, come to power, this is the way of Congress. This is the attitude of Congress, not ours,” she said.

She further alleged that the then chief minister Gehlot created hurdles in implementing the East Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP).

Sitharaman was on a one-day visit to Jaipur on Tuesday. She earlier addressed the Enlightenment Conference and ‘Industrial and Business Dialogue’ here.