The Opposition on Tuesday charged the Government in the Rajya Sabha for trying to “metamorphose” secular fabric of the country and turn it into a fascist regime besides widening the gulf between the rich and poor through its economic policies terming them as “jumlanomics.”
The Government hit back and said the Opposition was raising issues like intolerance, return of awards and JNU “to scuttle Government’s development agenda.” Making this assertion while intervening in a debate on Motion of Thanks on President’s Address, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also said seditious slogans will never be tolerated.
Participating in the debate, Sitaram Yechury(CPM) said the ongoing events in the country and unrest in various centres of higher learning including JNU, Hyderabad University and Allahabad University were dividing the country.
Claiming that intolerance was rising, Yechury warned these developments were “chillingly reminiscent of the way Hitler used nationalism to establish fascism.” He then went on to quote then US President George Bush’s remark “either you are with us or against us” while launching war on terror and said in Indian context it meant anti-national. Yechury said this while referring to hate speeches by some MPs and ministers of the NDA Government in recent times.
He charged that objective behind these events was to “metamorphose or change” the secular nature of polity into a fascist set up as per the RSS vision. Attempts were on to replace the syncretic fabric by Hindu Rashtra and rabidly “intolerant Hindus,” the left leader added.
On economic policies pursued by the current dispensation, Yechury they were just “jumlanomics” and claimed the gulf between the rich and poor was widening in the country. Referring to the budget for the next fiscal, he said tax concessions to the tune of more than Rs six lakh crore were given to corporate houses of India and abroad while the middle and lower classes were suffering.
If this tax was collected, the Government would have had funds to expand three times the rural employment generation programme, Yechury claimed adding the present policies were only benefitting the rich and the number of dollar billionaires was rising in India.
Referring to the Government’s proposal to link various benefits with the Aadhar cards, Yechury said the Government was bringing the Aadhar Bill as a money bill so that the Upper House is not able to scrutinise it thoroughly.
He pointed out that some years back when BJP was in opposition, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, then leader of Opposition, had in an article in the BJP website written about the dangers of data security concerning Aadhar cards. Jaitley “just has to abide by what he had written then,” he quipped.
As regards empowering women, Yechury said the Government was using the “tyranny of majority” in the lok Sabha and said it should use these numbers to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in lok Sabha, passed by the Rajya Sabha almost six years ago. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar opposed these comments, saying the majority had been given by the people.
Quoting a paragraph from the President’s address which mentioned words ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram,’ he said “the three ‘S’s in this phrase, being widely used by the Government, were more than the two S’s used in Hitler’s secret police SS (Schutzstaffel).”
D Raja (CPI) claimed that attempt was being made to “subvert” the constitutional rule and accused the Government of wanting to suppress ideas of young minds as its actions in JNU and Hyderabad University showed.
On the foreign policy front, Raja said the Government was making the country “subservient to American capitalist interest,” and also asked the Government demonstrate its “political will” by passing the Women’s Reservation Bill in the lok Sabha.