Twitter war erupts between Amit Malviya and Mallikarjun Kharge over CAG report on UDAN

BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya has responded to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, after Kharge in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) slammed the central government. Kharge had cited an audit report of the government's UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme to point out irregularities in the implementation. 

Amit Malviya has accused Congress President Kharge of cherry-picking facts to score political brownie points. “Cherry picking facts to score political points and eclipsing the full picture does not befit your stature Mr Kharge,” he wrote on X. Malviya took the opportunity to highlight the benefits of the respective scheme alleging that Kharge has “purposefully overlooked”. Malviya highlighted that CAG’s (Comptroller and Auditor General) report mentions UDAN scheme as a good initiative and credits it for “increasing air connectivity as a faster, safer and affordable option of travel for common people with eco-multiplier effect.” 

Malviya mentioned that under the scheme 74 airports/heliports/eater aerodromes have been either revived or upgraded and “operationalised providing maiden air connectivity to many tier 2 and tier 2 cities.” Malviya wrote, “About 1.25 crore passengers have been able to take 2.36 lakh affordable flights that connect hitherto unserved areas.” 

Alleging that regional connectivity was impossible before 2014, Malviya said that cities like Darbhanga, Rourkela, Jamshedpur, Jharsugoda and Cooch Behar among others could be connected to other parts of the country only because of the UDAN scheme. Malviya also credited the scheme for allowing new airlines to be established and prosper. “IndiaOne, Star Air, Fly Big and Fly91,” are some of the names of airlines he mentioned. 

Taking a jibe at Kharge and targeting former Congress chief and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, Malviya asked Kharge to not let Gandhi’s team dictate him on what to put on social media saying, “They (Rahul Gandhi’s team) knows nothing!” 

Congress President had targeted the Narendra Modi government saying that the government’s promise of enabling those wearing slippers travel by air has not been fulfilled “just like all their promises”. He mentioned, in his post, that the scheme did not work on 93% of the routes and common people only got “lies” and “jumlas” from the government. 

Kharge said, “We are not saying this, the CAG Report is saying this! The scheme (UDAN) did not work on 93 per cent of the routes. Even an independent audit of airlines was not done. The much publicized Helicopter services also remained stalled.”

UDAN is a flagship scheme launched by the union government in 2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity and make travel by air affordable for the masses.