UPA under pressure from the United States: Nitin Gadkari

The UPA government and Congress are working under US pressure, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari alleged on Sunday.

Addressing a party meeting in Lucknow on the eve of Monday’s ‘Bharat Bandh’, he said the US was dictating the Centre’s economic policies. “This is responsible for the abnormally high, 13%, inflation rate,” Gadkari asserted.

“In neighbouring countries, the inflation rate is about 2%. The Congress must explain why this is so since it had promised to check inflation within 100 days [of being elected to power]. Instead, the prices have increased three to four times,” he said.

Lashing out at the Centre for compromising internal and external security under American pressure, the BJP president said while the US and European countries had strict rules for issuing visas to Indians, New Delhi was “rolling out the red carpet” for foreigners.

“The US is pressuring our government to hold talks with Pakistan. At the same time, it is supplying arms to Islamabad. What kind of a policy is this?” he said.

Gadkari called upon party workers not to react to the misinformation campaign that BJP had become weak.

“We have governments in eight states, our chief ministers in six states and 156 MPs,” he said.