Varun Gandhi takes 'muft ki revdi' swipe at Modi govt

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi took a swipe at the government on Saturday over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's muft ke revdi (freebies) comment, saying loans up to Rs 10 lakh crore of corrupt businessmen were waived in the last five years.

Mehul Choksi and Rishi Agarwal top the list of those who received muft ki revdi, Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, sharing a government reply in Parliament about the top 10 defaulter firms.

Choksi and Agarwal are associated with two of those firms.

"The same Parliament that expects the poor to express thanks at receiving five kg grains also says bad loans of Rs 10 lakh crore of corrupt businessmen have been waived in the last five years. Who has the first right over the government treasury?" Gandhi asked.

He was apparently referring to another Bharatiya Janata Party MP's remarks during a debate in Parliament that Modi has been providing free foodgrains to 80 crore poor people since the COVID-19 outbreak. The government deserves praise for this, the MP had said.

The prime minister stirred a debate recently by criticising some political parties for offering muft ki revdi for electoral gains.

This is very harmful for the country's development, he had said.