Shimla: Congress in Himachal Pradesh on Monday sought to justify its move of changing names of some schemes, named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, saying the previous BJP government had tried to "sell Vajpayee's name by misguiding people on centrally sponsored schemes".
"They had tried to sell Vajpayee's name on centrally sponsored schemes like free ambulance scheme (108), which was funded under the National Rural Health Mission and the subsidised ration scheme started by Congress government by printing Vajpayee's picture on the ration bags," Himachal Congress Chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu said.
He said the free uniform scheme for school children was a also Centre's scheme but named after Vajpayee.
"The Congress party has all regard for Vajpayee but the BJP misused his name and set a precedent by naming schemes after a person who is still alive. It's a strange tradition," he said.
He also refuted the allegations of BJP that the state government was targeting the opposition party and said former chief minister P K Dhumal should look back at his own tenure when political opponents were targeted and most of the actions of the then government were motivated by political vendetta.
"A person whose government indulged in large scale phone tapping and intruded into privacy of the people has no moral right to talk about conventions and democratic traditions," Sukkhu said.
He said that the HPCC has already urged the government to make the name of persons public whose phones were kept under surveillance illegally tapped.
He asked the BJP to reconcile to the truth that it was out of power and gracefully accept the change.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 09:38