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“There is a question who is the Pappu, where is the Pappu. Actually, if only the honourable member looks back into her own backyard, she will find Pappu in West Bengal,” Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Moitra had cited data showing industrial contraction to question the Centre’s handling of the economy, and asked “who is the ‘Pappu’ now?” She had also taken a dig at BJP for losing power in Himachal Pradesh, the home state of party president JP Nadda.
“This government and the ruling party coined the term Pappu. You use it to denigrate and signify extreme incompetence. But the statistics tell us who the actual Pappu is,” Moitra said. She also remarked that the question is not who started the fire but who gave the “mad man” the “maachis”.
Sitharaman alleged deteriorating law and order situation and slow progress of various welfare schemes in Trinamool-ruled West Bengal, and remarked “Pappu” can be found in that state too.
“So there is no doubt… when there are wonderful schemes which can benefit common people, West Bengal sits over it and doesn’t (implement) them… you don’t need to search anywhere else for Pappu,” the minister said.
‘Pappu’ is a term that BJP workers frequently use to describe Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Sitharaman also returned Moitra’s “maachis” barb and said, “Loktantra mein janata sarkar ke haath mein maachis dethi hain. Isliye, prashan yeh nahi hona chahiye ki haath mein maachis kisne di, asli prashan to yeh hai ki maachis ka upayog kis prakar kiya gaya (In democracy, people give matchsticks in the hands of the government. So the question should not be that who gave the matchsticks but how the matchsticks were used).”
Taking a dig at the TMC, the finance minister said that when that party got the “maachis” in West Bengal, there was arsoning, looting, rapes, and burning of houses of BJP workers. But when BJP got the mandate, it gave free cooking gas, electricity connections, Rs 6,000 annual cash to farmers, and started clean India campaign.
In the same vein, Sitharaman also said that funds under rural job guarantee scheme MNREGA could not be released to West Bengal since March 2022 as the state government has not yet replied to complaints of misuse of funds.
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