Ayushman Bharat: Its Nadda versus Rahul on Centre's health schemes

New Delhi: Blaming the previous UPA government for not doing anything for the Health Sector, Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Saturday asked Congress President Rahul Gandhi not to spread ''false and misleading'' information about Centre's health schemes.

Reacting to comments by Mr Gandhi said that the Government, under its Aayushman Bharat initiative, has given monopoly for insurance business in clusters of districts or sectors, exclusively to chosen corporate entities, including those of the Anil Ambani Group and Tata Group, Mr Nadda, in a series of tweets, said,'''I request you, Mr Rahul, to take out some time to know more about Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY. Most of the states have trust models of this scheme.

Do not spread false and misleading facts about these schemes.''''Ache din are here, people who earlier used to do vote bank politics, today they are forced to talk about health, education and development. It would have been better if Mr Gandhi had known the facts about 'Ayushman Bharat','' the Minister added.

Mr Nadda further tweeted, ''Rahulji, if INCINDIA would have paid some importance to the health sector during the last 60 years then there would not be only one AIIMS in the country. BJP government has made 13 news AIIMS, it has given new medical colleges and also made "Rae Bareli'' functional. Ayushman Bharat Yojana is a life saver for poor people.''Participating in an interaction with an interactive session with business leaders and professionals in Udaipur, Mr gandhi said that the Government, under its Aayushman Bharat initiative, has given monopoly for insurance business in clusters of districts or sectors, exclusively to chosen corporate entities, including those of the Anil Ambani Group and Tata Group.

"Under this arrangement, people or groups do not have any option but to buy the insurance policy from the assigned company", he elaborated.

Likewise, the government policy leading to long-term battle (between public and crony capitalism) for getting the right of internet data, the Congress chief said.

Defenders of public interests, including NGOs and people at large, were not yet aware of the significance of the data, the most valuable futurist asset, however, big players like Amazon, Google and some of the crony corporates have understood the importance of capturing it, Mr Gandhi said.

"We (Congress) are of the considered view that people of the country should own the data and not the (crony) corporates", he asserted.