CM woos traders, accuses Modi of harassing them

NEW DELHI: Urging

traders

to

vote

for Aam Aadmi Party in the Lok Sabha elections, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday claimed that

Narendra Modi’s nationalism

was

“fake”

and

“an illusion”

. Addressing a press conference, he said the traders should look beyond all this and see the reality.


“The traders are very unhappy and have been hurt because the Modi government has broken the backbone of the country’s economy in the last five years. The policies of the Modi government have ruined traders. Demonetisation in a single stroke brought endless misery to traders. And barely had the trading community recovered from this rude shock that the Modi government hastily brought in GST, which nobody could understand since it was implemented without any proper planning,” said the chief minister.
He said sealings were the next jolt as it led to closure of many shops and factories and job loss. “The trader community is feeling orphaned. They want to leave BJP and go elsewhere,” said Kejriwal, appealing to the traders to build a relationship with him which he would honour till his last breath. He said he will ensure there were no sealings in Delhi.

Alleging that “tax terrorism” has been unleashed by the Modi government which has destroyed businesses, Kejriwal remarked: “The central government has unleashed a reign of terror on traders by letting loose IT and ED on them across the country...Lakhs of notices are being sent to traders with the intention of extorting money from them. It is having a highly detrimental effect on India’s economy. No country can progress in the kind of atmosphere created by the Modi government.” He said an impression was being created that all traders and industrialists were cheats whereas 90 per cent do their work honestly.

Kejriwal said that some traders till want to go with Modi due to nationalism. “Do not fall into this trap and see the reality,” he said. “Modi has a secret relationship with Pakistan. Do you think that a PM who gets the chief minister attacked can be a nationalist?” The CM alleged that after Pulwama, Modi had sent a secret message to Pakistan on its national day and the Pakistan PM had openly stated that he wants Modi to be India’s PM again.”

Union minister Vijay Goel dismissed Kejriwal’s remarks as baseless. “Nobody will take Kejriwal seriously with the kind of allegations he is making, especially his remarks about the PM and that his nationalism is fake. The traders have already shown their support for the Modi government.” Goel denied the tax terrorism charge too. “Ninety five per cent of the items are at or below the GST tax slab of 18%. Everyone knows that the sealing drive is being carried out by the monitoring committee under the supervision of Supreme Court. I and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari have been fighting against sealings. In contrast, Kejriwal, who resorts to hunger strike at the drop of a hat, never sat on a hunger strike, staged a dharna or made any comment against sealings.”