'Copycat' NDA govt only carrying forward UPA policies: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today accused the NDA government of being a "copycat" and ridiculed it for engaging in "hype and hoopla" over the launch yesterday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the ' Jan Dhan Yojana' to provide bank accounts to the poor.

Congress claimed that the Yojana was "only a continuation" of the financial inclusion plan initiated by the previous UPA regime.

Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi charged that imitation continues to be the policy of the NDA government and "BJP continues to piggy back on and copy UPA programmes".

He also said that while Congress has no problem with the plan for financial inclusion, BJP should not engage in "hype and hoopla and exaggeration".

"No due credit" was given by Modi for the "massive financial inclusion programmes" carried out for a decade by the Congress-led UPA government, Singhvi claimed.

"Don't be cussed and non-generous," he said, alleging that the BJP-led government suffers from "insecurity" and, hence, was not recognising the contribution made by the previous UPA dispensation.

Citing figures, Singhvi said that there were 43.9 crore bank accounts in the country when UPA came to power in 2004 and that figure had risen to 77.32 crore when it demitted office in 2014.

"The number of villages covered in terms of bank accounts increased from 67,000 to 2.48 lakh in three years from 2010. Is it fair to say that nothing happened?" he said.

Another Congress leader and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma claimed that the Jan Dhan Yojana was only an "amalgamation of the various schemes" from the past and "the prime minister's claim that nothing had happened in the last 68 years is a falsification of the truth".

Sharma alleged that by saying nothing was done, the NDA government has "insulted" the officials, including those in banks, who had toiled hard.

"This only shows duplicity and doublespeak... I am not objecting to what the PM has done, but his claim that nothing happened in 68 years is a falsification of truth to hoodwink the innocent and the poor people of India," he said.

Sharma said one expects the prime minister and finance minister to have the honesty to tell the people about what has been achieved by the financial inclusion mission pursued by UPA when it was in power.