On Monday, the President of the Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, accused the Modi administration of “taking the nation on a highway to hell” and claimed its involvement in corruption within infrastructure projects. Kharge supported his claim using a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India regarding the “Bharatmala Pariyojana” highway projects. He used the report to suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should first examine his own actions before accusing his political opponents of corruption.
Kharge, utilizing X (formerly known as Twitter), cited the CAG report to assert that the corruption and misuse of funds by the BJP are leading the nation towards a dire situation. He leveled a forceful complaint against the Modi government, asserting that the “Bharatmala Pariyojana” project suffers from “innumerable deficiencies, non-compliance with outcome parameters, blatant violation of the tender bidding process, and significant mismanagement of funds.”
Kharge pointed to the Dwarka Expressway as a glaring instance of the “fraud” embedded within this scheme. According to Kharge, the CAG report revealed that the project’s cost “was initially estimated at Rs 528.8 crore but later zoomed to Rs 7,287.2 crore — a whopping 1,278% increase.”
“Pradhan Mantri ji, you need to look within, before you harp about corruption against your opponents, because you are overseeing it yourself. In 2024, INDIA will make your government accountable,” Kharge’s statement read.
Jairam Ramesh, the Congress party’s general secretary for communications, also criticized Modi’s actions. “Tomorrow, the prime minister will unleash a torrent of lies from the ramparts of the Red Fort for one last time. Last week, the entire country saw his tsunami of lies in Parliament.”
He questioned whether the prime minister would have the guts to call out his own government and ministers for their corruption and ineptitude.
Ramesh asserted that even a “defanged” CAG had managed to “expose the sheer corruption and incompetence of the Modi government” by referencing a number of CAG findings presented to Parliament. He emphasized the conclusions of the CAG reports by stating that the auditor had discovered a general cost overrun of more than 100% in the much-publicized “Bharatmala Pariyojana.”
