India News | BJP Targets AAP, Warns 'revadi Culture' May Push Gujarat Towards Lanka-like Crisis

Ahmedabad, Jul 20 (PTI) The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Gujarat unit chief C R Paatil on Wednesday warned that people should not get misguided by the "revadi culture" of freebies as it could eventually turn the state and India into Sri Lanka, which is currently going through a severe economic crisis.

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Although Paatil did not name anyone, he was apparently targeting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who has promised free electricity if voted to power in Gujarat.

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Assembly elections in the BJP-ruled state are due by the end of this year. Apart from the BJP and the Congress, the AAP is gearing up to contest the elections.

Paatil, while speaking at an event in state capital Gandhinagar, urged the BJP workers to warn Gujarat voters about the consequences of the 'revadi' culture, saying that it could result in the Sri Lanka-like economic and political crisis.

"Some people in the country are distributing revadi (freebies). But people of Gujarat should not get misguided by such revadi culture. Do these people (AAP) want to turn Gujarat into Sri Lanka? We must give a befitting reply to such people," he said.

Paatil was addressing the party workers on the second anniversary of his becoming the party's state unit chief.

"BJP workers need to make people understand and also warn them about the consequences of revadi culture. As we can see on television, the situation in Sri Lanka is very worrisome. It happened because of this practice of distributing freebies. Even the heads of the state were forced to flee from the country," he said.

Although the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was helping the neighbouring country in all possible ways, India would become Sri Lanka if the government started distributing revadi like the island nation, he added.

"People in Sri Lanka are not getting food, medicines or fuel. Today, we are in a situation where we can help them, but if we walk on their path of distributing revadi, we will land in a similar situation. We must not let Gujarat become Sri Lanka," Paatil said.

On Saturday, PM Modi had cautioned the people against what he called was a "revadi culture" of offering freebies for winning votes. He had used 'revadi', a popular north Indian sweet often distributed during festivals, as a metaphor for freebies. He warned the countrymen saying such 'revadi culture' could prove to be "very dangerous" for the development of the country.

Countering him, Kejriwal had said free water, electricity, healthcare, world-class education and bus travel for women were not freebies but the responsibility of the state. He also said that waiving loans of friends and fetching them tenders worth thousands of crores was "free ki revadi".

As part of the poll campaign in Gujarat, Kejriwal is set to begin his two-day Gujarat visit by arriving in Surat from Wednesday, during which he will announce AAP's first poll-related "guarantee" for the people on Thursday.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)