Tikamgarh: The infighting between Congress stalwarts in the Madhya Pradesh government is out in the open after Chief Minister Kamal Nath and party general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia had a massive difference of opinion over the promises made to guest teachers in the Congress manifesto in the run-up to the previous Assembly election.
Scindia had on Thursday threatened to protest alongside guest teachers against the Madhya Pradesh government and assured them that they would be regularised as per the promises in the party’s manifesto, adding that he will stand as their “sword and shield” if promises made by the Congress party in its poll manifesto were not followed through.
“I want to assure you that your demand is included in our government’s manifesto and it is our sacred text. It has been a year of the government, teachers have to be a little patient. Our turn will come and if not then I assure you that I will be your shield and sword,” Scindia said on Thursday.
Nath, in a veiled retort to Scindia’s threat, on Friday said that the party had come out with the manifesto for a period of five years, not five months. “The manifesto is for five years, right? It’s not for five months,” Nath told reporters.
Scindia assured the teachers that he would join them in their protests and take to the streets in solidarity with them.
“If all promises in the manifesto are not fulfilled, do not think you are alone. Scindia will also hit the streets with you,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
The feud between the Congress stalwarts has time and again come out in the open, the most prominent of it being during the 2018 Assembly elections when Scindia loyalists had projected the royal as the state’s next chief minister.
Even after the drubbing the Congress faced in the 2020 Delhi polls, Scindia asked the party to follow people with new thoughts and ideologies.
Scindia further said that he has put in a request with the Madhya Pradesh government to work in the next five years to eradicate malnutrition from the state. “We will remove the blur of malnutrition within our government’s tenure,” the former Guna MP said.
