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New Delhi: On the day the Narendra Modi government\u2019s flagship \u2018Digital India\u2019 initiative completed ten years, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has launched a blistering attack, stating that the ambitious programme has delivered more \u201cfailures and frauds\u201d than digital empowerment.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Congress chief accuses the Modi government of making lofty claims while hiding glaring gaps in execution, digital access and data security. Digital India is a flagship programme of the government launched on July 1, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n
In a sharply worded post on his X handle, Kharge accused the Modi government of making lofty claims while hiding glaring gaps in execution, digital access and data security. \u201cThe fine print of Modi govt\u2019s lofty claims of \u2018Digital India\u2019 is marred by unfulfilled promises, digital exclusion, and weakened transparency,\u201d Kharge wrote.<\/p>\n
Citing official data, Kharge highlighted that out of the 6.55 lakh villages targeted for broadband connectivity under the BharatNet project, only 35 per cent have been covered so far, despite the deadline being revised eight times over 11 years. \u201cOnly 766 Gram Panchayats \u2014 just 0.73 per cent \u2014 have active Wi-Fi services,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Kharge didn\u2019t stop at infrastructure failures. He accused the Modi government of digitally excluding the poor and marginalised. Quoting National Sample Surveys data, he said 75.3 per cent of Indians above 15 years still do not know how to use a computer, including 81.9 per cent in rural areas. \u201cEven today, 54 per cent of government schools don\u2019t have an Internet connection, 79 per cent have no computers, and 85 per cent lack smart classrooms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Raising concerns about data security, Kharge claimed that India has witnessed over 10 crore cyberattacks since the Pahalgam incident.<\/p>\n
He also accused the ruling government of undermining transparency, citing the weakening of the RTI Act and replacing it with a \u201cflawed\u201d Data Protection Law.<\/p>\n
Taking a swipe at the BJP for taking credit for initiatives launched by previous governments, Kharge reminded that it was Dr Manmohan Singh government that laid the foundation for Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: On the day the Narendra Modi government\u2019s flagship \u2018Digital India\u2019 initiative completed ten years, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has launched a blistering attack, stating that the ambitious programme has delivered more \u201cfailures and frauds\u201d than digital empowerment. According to Kashmir Media Service, the Congress chief accuses the Modi government of making lofty claims …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":178168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-178167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}