New Delhi: If there is one special poll promise Narendra Modi made in his prime ministerial campaign, it has to be the Rs 15 lakh he said would be transferred to each bank account.
He had said that when his government rescues all the so-called black money stashed in foreign banks, every Indian can have the amount in their accounts.
After 4.5 years since he assumed power, his government continues to face widespread attacks for making such an unrealistic promise. The opposition has not missed a chance to target the BJP for crudely misleading the poor.
The pressure on the government was such that, at one point, BJP president Amit Shah, in an interview, had to say that it was merely an election jumla (idiom).
Also read: How Successful Was Modi’s War on Black Money Stashed Abroad?
On December 18, the jumla came back to the spotlight when a Union minister addressed a question on it with utmost seriousness.
Ramdas Athawale, the current junior Union minister of social justice and empowerment, said that the “15 lakh rupees will come slowly, not at a single time.”
The minister is the president of the Maharashtra-based Republican Party of India (Athawale), a constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
In his statement to the ANI, he said that the government had asked money from the Reserve Bank of India but the central bank did not oblige. And that it was only for “technical reasons” that the promise could not be fulfilled until now.
Here is what the ANI tweeted:
The minister’s statement is most likely to revive the talk around the poll promise that had almost drowned into the social media world of GIFs, memes and stand-up comedies.