Taking a swipe at Indian National Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the corrupt who are out on bail can enjoy as his government does not throw people in jail arbitrarily.
“Our government’s fight against corruption will continue. Action against the corrupt is the work of the courts. This is a democracy, we can’t throw people in jail arbitrarily. The corrupt who are out on bail can enjoy,” Modi said in his Lok Sabha reply to the discussion on Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address to Parliament.
On Monday during the debate, Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhry said the Bharatiya Janata Party had come to power by raking up 2G and coal allocation scam.
“Did you manage to catch anybody in 2G and Coal scam? Did you manage to send Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji behind the bars? You came to power by calling them thieves, then how are they sitting in Parliament?”
Taking a dig at the Congress, the Prime Minister said: “You have gone so high, that you cannot see the ground. Our dream is to not go high, our dream is to connect with the roots.”
Dynasty
Attacking the principal opposition for its dynastic politics, the Prime Minister said no Congress prime minister was ever appreciated whether it was Narasimha Rao or Manmohan Singh and only one family was spoken about and got all the attention.
“Did those in power from 2004 to 2014 ever talk about the good work of Atal Ji? Did they ever speak about the good work of Narasimha Rao ji? In this Lok Sabha debate the same people did not even speak of Manmohan Singh ji,” Modi said.
On the 44th anniversary of the Emergency, the Prime Minister said: “The soul of nation was crushed on the night of June 25. Who trampled over the spirit of Constitution, gagged the media and bullied the judiciary. We can’t forget the dark days,” he said in the House of the People in the presence of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
New India
Highlighting his government’s vision, the Prime Minister said people wanted a safe, secure and inclusive India and therefore, the people have given a strong mandate to the BJP after many decades
Poverty alleviation and modernisation of the country must go on simultaneously, he said adding that it was important that the country progressed, every Indian was empowered and the nation had modern infrastructure. He said that when one had developed courage for high aims, then it was useless to look at the size of the ambition.
“If we have to realise the dreams of 1.25 crore Indians, we have to think big. This government is only three weeks old. In such a short time we have taken bold decisions on farmers and the poor. Key decisions have been taken on welfare of security men who guard our country,” he said. “We did not divert from our development path, we did not dilute our development agenda. Our dream is to get closer to the people at the grassroots.”
Genie
Continuing the debate in Rajya Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, Congress leader Digvijay Singh lashed out at the Modi government for the recent incidents of mob lynching and averred that the genie of communalism has come out of the bottle.
“The genie of communalism has come out of the bottle and you can not win over the the faith of the Muslims, Sikhs and Christians because your foot soldiers will keep on lynching them like what happened in Jharkhand,” Singh said.
Digvijay Singh said it was important to know why Modi needed ‘Sabka Vishwas’? “How has the slogan of 2014 Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas turned in to Sabka Vishwas in 2019 and why PM Modi seeks the confidence of minorities?”
Referring to the shouting of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogan during oath taking by members of opposition, he said, “This is a piquant situation before the nation that members of Parliament when they takes oath, the religious slogan like Jai Sri Ram and Allah ho Akabar are heard which is bad for the country.”
Economic downturn
Criticising the economic policies of the government, Digvijay Singh said: “You are talking about 5 trillion dollar economy but to achieve this you need to have the growth rate of 21 per cent of GDP. The statistical department was forced to tweak the data and many officials quit under your pressure.”
Referring to the Presidential Address, he said that it did not mention any thing about the unemployment which is highest in last 45 years.
“You forced Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to buy equity from the debt ridden Gujarat Oil Corporation which made ONGC, a profit making company, to a loss making company,” he alleged.
Talking about Kashmir, he asked the government that how many Pandits have returned to the Valley. On the Pulwama attack, he said that there was a clear cut intelligence failure.
Failed
Speaking during the Rajya Sabha debate, Trinamool Congress member Derek O’Brien said that the government policies failed on health, education, unemployment and other vital indices. He challenged the government that when they have such huge majority, why they do not bring the Women Reservation Bill in the House?
“They talk about the Beti Bachao Beti Padao, but according to the official figure given by this government, each state is getting a meagre funding of Rs.2 crore only where as in Bengal the AITC Government has allocated Rs.7,000 crore to a similar scheme in the state.”
He also raised concern over the decreasing number of parliamentary sittings which should be at least 100 days in a year. He alleged that the Centre has been reducing its contribution in centrally sponsored schemes. “You are talking about doubling the farmers income in 2022 but in Bengal we have tripled the farmers income,” he said.
O’Brian suggested three points like constitution of collegium for the appointment of Election Commissioner, use of ballot paper in coming polls and state funding for elections.
String of successes
Speaking on the debate , Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of the BJP, illustrated the example of many achievements of the NDA government during 2014 to 2019, and said that it has achieved success because of relentless pressure under the leadership of PM Modi who has been working for more than 18 hours a day without any leave.
Responding to the leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad’s comment to return the ‘Old India’, he said that it is the ‘New India’ in which the sex ratio in the country has risen and this all happened because of the government scheme ‘Beti Bachao- Beti Padao’.
Slamming the comment of Azad, he said that the nation does not want the ‘Old India’ in which the brokers were queued up in different Ministries,the infiltration in North East was made possible to help them in getting them in power.
Sahasrabuddhe further said that from 2014, a new concept of ‘nation building’ has been initiated, though the nation building was initiated long back ago right from the days of Jawahar Lal Nehru and other Prime Ministers too.
He also elaborated on the achievements of foreign policy under former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj that initiated a new diplomacy with development in relations with other nations. (UNI)
