Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday made a fresh effort to break the logjam over the National Counter Terrorism Centre by stating that the Centre would work with the States in setting up of the anti-terror agency.
“There could be no two points of views that there could be no compromise on terrorism. I hope and believe that all parties will speak with one voice on it. To bring a broad national consensus we will work with the State Government to give meaning and substance to NCTC,” the PM said in his reply in the Rajya Sabha to the Motion of Thanks on President’s Address. He rejected the leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley’s charge that the Centre has converted NCTC to a slogan.
The PM also dismissed Jaitley’s charge that his Government had made a mess of economy by huge social sector spending and asked him to assess the economic situation in an unbiased manner, using his “good sense” and not merely score political points.
Singh said that the direction of economic reform started by him as Finance Minister in 1992 was not changed by subsequent Governments-- United Front Government, NDA Government and even those supported by the left parties. He said that he was proud of huge social sector spending for poor by the UPA Government unlike NDA which had just given token sums for them.
Admitting that during the past one year the economic growth has declined, he exuded confidence that the economy will get back to the path of 7 to 8 per cent growth in the next two to three years.
Regarding Pakistan, Singh said that normalisation in relations cannot take place unless the terror infrastructure is dismantled there. The people to people contacts have gone up, trade relations have shown improvement, but for normalisation of relations terror machine active there must be brought under control.
The PM appealed to all political parties to show “wisdom” to endorse land accord with Bangladesh as it is beneficial to both the countries and would promote bilateral ties and peace and tranquality. About the political crisis in Maldives following the arrest of former President Mohammed Nasheed, the PM said that free and fair elections are the
“best course” and hoped its people and Government will overcome atmosphere of “uncertainty”.
However, the PM remained silent over corruption which was pointed out by Jaitley who said that rampant corruption under the UPA regime was not a source of envy for BJP and hoped that Singh will not treat it a non-issue.
Expressing concern over the plight of Tamils in Sri lanka, the PM said that the Sri lankan Government must talk to the Tamil leadership and that a political reconciliation was a must to bring lasting peace there to resolve the Tamils’ issue. “It will be our effort to work with the Government of Sri lanka to ensure that Tamil population in Sri lanka are given a chance to lead a life of dignity and self respect as equal citizens of that country.”
‘Singh forgot to praise Gujarat’
New Delhi: “The Prime Minister’s reply was a disappointment. He neither talked about corruption, nor did he address the problem of price rise which was affecting the common man,” BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said. “The nation gets looted, but he (Prime Minister) is still considered honest,” he said. He welcomed lauding of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh for speedy growth but said that like all Congress leaders PM forgot to mention Gujarat. PNS