Congress lost credibility for its negative politics: Ananth Kumar

Kolkata, June 15 (IANS) Accusing the Congress of fuelling the farmers' agitation in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district, Union Minister Ananth Kumar on Thursday said the party has lost its credibility due to its preoccupation with negative politics.

"The Congress has lost all its credibility for doing negative politics everywhere. In spite of being at the helm for almost 60 years, they have not been able to take many important initiatives that the Narendra Modi government has taken in just three years," the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers and Parliamentary Affairs said at a press conference here.

The senior BJP leader was addressing the media at the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee's residence in Kolkata.

Referring to the rapid spread and success of the Prime Minister's "Jan Aushadhi" (generic medicine) outlets in the country that would enable the needy to get medicines at a fair price, Ananth Kumar claimed that the Congress was facing questions as to why it could not come up with such welfare initiatives during its reign.

"We have increased the Prime Minister's Jan Aushadhi (generic medicine) outlets from 88 to more than 1,600, so that the poor from all over the country could get the benefit of the scheme," the party leader from Karnataka said.

"Also, before the Modi government, the price for cardiac stent used to be around Rs 1.5 lakh. We have fixed that price within Rs 30,000 per stent. The people of the nation are now asking why could the Congress not think of any of these steps during their time," he added.