On the 15th of April, Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale resorted to lying in his attempt to attack the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gokhale claimed that the BJP in its recently released election manifesto does not mention the PMAY scheme or its commitment towards housing for all.
In a long X post, Saket Gokhale called PM Modi a “pathological liar” although Gokhale himself was making misleading claims, and said that in the 2019 election manifesto, BJP promised pucca houses for all by 2022 but failed to fulfil this promise and in its 2024 election manifesto, BJP made no mention of housing for all Indians.
“How the BJP Manifesto 2024 exposes Modi’s brazen lies. During the last Lok Sabha election in 2019, BJP & Modi had made a promise saying “Every Indian will have a pucca house by 2022”. This promise was not only made by Modi but also shows up on the website of the PM Awas Yojana. What’s the reality? Modi LIED & failed to deliver this promise. Now BJP’s 2024 manifesto is positioned as “Modi ki Guarantee”. But there’s not a single word from Modi anymore about whether he delivered on his promise in the last election to provide “housing for all Indians by 2022…”
How the BJP Manifesto 2024 exposes Modi's brazen lies 👇
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) April 15, 2024
During the last Lok Sabha election in 2019, BJP & Modi had made a promise saying "Every Indian will have a pucca house by 2022".
This promise was not only made by Modi but also shows up on the website of the PM Awas… pic.twitter.com/nDCTmFsgaK
Did the Modi government fail to deliver its promise?
Firstly, OpIndia checked Bhartiya Janata Party’s 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto and page number 33, point number 08 found that the party had promised to “ensure pucca houses for families living in kuchha houses by 2022.”
Notably, the screenshot of the PMAY website that Gokhale shared had information about the Pradhan Mantri Away Yojana (Urban) which says “The Mission addresses urban housing shortage among the EWS/LIG and MIG categories including the slum dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to all eligible urban households by the year 2022, when Nation completes 75 years of its Independence.”
As per the government data, so far 118.64 lakh houses have been sanctioned against demand of 112.24 lakh under PMAY (U) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Of this, 114.11 lakh have been grounded and 82.02 lakh completed.
Meanwhile, under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin/Rural), as many as 25.5 million out of 29.5 million have been constructed so far and 29.4 million have been sanctioned. Given the popularity of this scheme, the Union finance minister had announced in February this year, that PMAY-G will continue for another five years to construct an additional 20 million houses.
Saket Gokhale lies that the BJP made zero mention of housing for all Indians
The TMC MP claimed that the BJP did not even mention housing for all Indians or PMAY in its 2024 election manifesto. “What’s shocking is that the 2024 BJP manifesto makes ZERO mention of “housing for all Indians”. Modi is a pathological liar. For the last 10 years, he & his party BJP have only made tall fake promises. It is not just the lies that are offensive. What’s worse is how Modi thinks he can underestimate the intelligence of an average Indian & feels that he can keep bluffing election after election. Modi Guarantee = Zero Warranty,” Gokhale added in his post.
Contrary to Saket Gokhale’s claim, the BJP on page 12 of its poll manifesto has explicitly mentioned expanding the PM Awas Yojana. “We have improved the living conditions of 4+ crore garib parivar under PM Awas Yojana. We recognise the far-reaching benefits of this programme. We will now further expand the PM Awas Yojana to ensure every garib parivar has access to quality housing,” the BJP “Sankalp Patra” reads.
Thus, it is clear that the TMC MP is blatantly lying about BJP’s housing for all promises and misleading the people. Ironically, despite peddling fake news himself, Gokhale has the audacity to call PM Modi a “pathological liar”.
While Saket Gokhale accused PM Modi of underestimating the intelligence of an average Indian and bluffing, Gokhale has a history of peddling lies and distorting facts to suit his narrative.
Saket Gokhale has a history of making misleading claims
In February this year, Gokhale shared an image of an article titled: Over 200 ED case documents found in possession of gang insinuating that the ED was using gangs to allegedly extort money for BJP funds. The article was published in the Mumbai tabloid Mid-day which cited Crime Branch officials stating that files recovered from arrested men, who are suspected of extorting Rs 100 crores, may have been used in collusion with some individual from the Enforcement Directorate. In the garb of questioning, Gokhale added the insinuation that ED is handing over case files to these gangs to outsource extortion of money for BJP funds.
His post, however, was fact-checked by Mumbai Police which said that the news article Gokhale quoted contained false information and that Gokhale further distorted the news by adding his insinuations to suit his narrative.
In December last year, Saket Gokhale narrated a fake conversation with BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal to claim that the Modi government is planning to suspend all MPs before tabling the criminal law bills. Gokhale’s claim was soon debunked by Minister Goyal who said that Saket Gokhale is “spreading vicious lies with obvious malafide intent.”
In September 2023, Gokhale and several others claimed that the Indian government spent 300 per cent more on the G20 event than the funds that were previously allocated for the event in the budget. The Press Information Bureau (PIB), however, debunked the claims as “misleading”.
In August last year, Gokhale had claimed that the Central government was buying 50 bulletproof Audi cars for G20 Summit, which may cost over Rs 400 crore. The government debunked Gokhale’s claim and said that it was not buying but leasing 20 Audi bullet-resistant cars for visiting G20 leaders as per the standard protocol of providing bulletproof cars to certain foreign dignitaries including heads of state.
The list of Gokhale’s fake news peddling is never-ending. In December 2022, the TMC MP was arrested for spreading fake news about the Morbi Bridge tragedy in Gujarat. He was later released on bail. The TMC MP also has a case ongoing against him in which he is accused of misusing money he had collected through crowdfunding. As reported earlier, it has been alleged that Gokhale collected over Rs 72 lakh from more than 1,700 persons through a crowdfunding platform ‘our democracy’ and used that money for personal use and thus, misappropriated the funds.
