In the backdrop of a spate of entrance and job related examinations paper leaks, President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday said the Government was fully committed to investigating the recent incidents and ensure that the guilty are punished.
Addressing the 18th Lok Sabha for the first time, Murmu said her Government was working to create an environment to enable youth of the country to dream big and realise their dreams. As she mentioned the steps taken by the Government on the education front, some Opposition members were heard shouting “NEET”.
Speaking about the recent general elections, Murmu said the whole world is talking about successful completion of India’s Lok Sabha polls. “The world is witnessing that the people of India have elected a stable Government with clear majority for a third consecutive term,” she told the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
In her first address to a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his third term, Murmu described the poll result as an endorsement of his Government’s policies while ruing attempts to weaken people’s faith in electoral process including EVMs, an apparent swipe at Opposition parties. It is like cutting the very branch on which “we all are sitting”, she said. A day after Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla condemned the imposition of Emergency, Murmu too described in her speech the imposition of Emergency in 1975 as the “biggest and darkest chapter” of a direct attack on the Constitution and said the country triumphed over unconstitutional forces.
Opposition leaders, however, dismissed the President’s address as a “script given by the Government” that was “full of lies” and also castigated the Government over the repeated mention of the 1975 Emergency. They said there is an “undeclared emergency” in the country and the Constitution is being attacked under the Modi government.
With the Opposition questioning the ‘intentions’ of the NDA Government as regards Constitution making it a poll issue in the Lok Sabha polls, Murmu stressed the Government’s unwavering faith in the Constitution and efforts to make it a part of “public consciousness”. She slammed the Emergency as the “biggest and darkest chapter of direct attack” on the Constitution.
In her 50-minute address, the President highlighted the government’s measures in a range of sectors, from economy, defence and farming to the empowerment of different sections of society, and laid down its priorities in its third term, amid sporadic protests from opposition benches when she referred to issues such as paper leaks and matters related to the North East region.
Though she touched upon some of the things promised in the BJP’s manifesto like bullet trains and health insurance for senior citizens, there was no mention of a few of the major highlights of the party’s promises such as the Uniform Civil Code and one-nation-one-election. “Many such reforms have taken place in the last 10 years which are greatly benefitting the nation today. Even when these reforms were being taken up, they were opposed and attempts were made to spread negativity,” she added.
On paper leasks, she said, “If due to any reason there is obstruction in examinations it is not appropriate. Sanctity and transparency are a must in government recruitments and examinations.”
There were incidents of paper leaks in some States earlier as well, the President said, stressing that there was need to rise above partisan politics and support the Government in taking strong steps at the national level. The President said Parliament has also made a strong law to check paper leaks and the Government is further working to reform the examination process.
Modi took to social media saying that President’s address to both Houses of Parliament was comprehensive and presented a roadmap of progress and good governance. “It covered the strides India has been making and also the potential that lies ahead. Her address also mentioned some of the major challenges we have to collectively overcome to ensure a qualitative change in the lives of our citizens.”
In an apparent message to opposition parties, who are numerically much stronger than the previous two Lok Sabha, Murmu pitched for healthy deliberations, saying opposition to policies and obstruction of parliamentary functioning are two different things.
Murmu also said the three new criminal laws, which are slated to come into force from July 1, will provide justice rather than punishment, which was the mindset during the British regime. She said the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 will speed up the judicial process. These laws, enacted last year, are set to replace the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act respectively.
When the country is becoming free of the colonial mindset in different aspects, this is a big step in that direction, she said. “It is also a real tribute to our freedom fighters.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said in Parliament last year that the new laws will give priority to providing justice in place of the outgoing British laws that gave primacy to penal action. “These three Bills are made by Indians, for Indians and by an Indian Parliament and marks the end of colonial criminal justice laws in India,” he had said.
