BJP cannot fool people all the time: Congress

CHENNAI: Accusing the BJP of "marketing" the achievements of the previous UPA regime as its own, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge today said they cannot fool the people all the time.

"One can fool all people some time, some people all time, but one cannot fool all the people all the time," he said referring to what he called "repackaging" of several UPA schemes by the BJP.

The Jan Dhan Yojana, FDI in insurance and defence were all formulated by the UPA. "We did not believe in marketing and this has been unfairly used against us by the BJP," he said.

He was addressing party workers here at a function in which the statues of freedom fighter Satyamurthi and former Chief Minister Kamaraj who was also a noted freedom fighter were unveiled.

The only thing the new government did in the last 120 days was "inaugurating" various development projects initiated by the Congress, he alleged.

Be it the high speed rail, Mars Orbiter Mission, induction of INS Vikramaditya, commissioning of INS Kolkata, food park in Karnataka, Katra and North east rail link, or freight corridors, ground work for all of these was done by the UPA, he maintained.

"But it is being sold as achievements of the BJP Government," Kharge said.

Accusing the BJP for stalling reform initiatives like the Goods and Services Tax, FDI in defence and insurance while it was in opposition, he said the Saffron party projected such Congress initiatives as "dangerous" then. "What are they doing now.,the very same thing what they opposed."

The revival in GDP growth rate of 5.7 per cent (April-June when UPA was in power) was due to Congress's economic policies which is "marketed" as BJP's achievements.