Chennai : Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said that he has never seen innocents like the Indian people, who believe the claims made by the government on the implementation of its programmes.

The former Union Minister, addressing a literary event, said, “I have never seen innocents like the Indian people. If something appears on print (and named two newspapers also), we believe it. We believe anything.”

Claims like all villages having been electrified in the country and toilets built for 99 per cent of families in India were being believed, he said.

Similar was the case of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or PM-JAY is a flagship health care scheme of the Centre), he alleged. Stating that his car driver’s father had to get a surgery done under the scheme, he said, however, it could not be performed.

“I asked him (car driver) if he had the Ayushman card and he showed a card and I told him to take it (to hospital). In hospital after hospital, they said they were not aware of anything like that (Ayushman scheme).

But we believe that the Ayushman scheme has come to the whole of India,” he said. Further, he said “we believe that for any disease, treatment will be done (indicating the Ayushman scheme) without shelling out money. We are being innocents.” Many news items and data were contrary to the truth, he added.