leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday used the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to list out the failures of the NDA Government in the last nine months and urged the Prime Minister to restrain fringe elements connected with BJP (such as RSS, VHP) from destroying the secular fabric of the country.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the House during the discussion, Azad said that Modi faces threat from within rather than the Opposition and wondered whether he would be successful in restraining the divisive elements who have “not even spared Mother Teresa”. He slammed the controversial statements made by BJP and RSS leaders, including Mohan Bhagwat. He also mentioned issues like ‘ghar wapsi’, ‘love-jihad’, attacks on churches.
“Prime Minister, you don’t face a threat from us. You face a threat from within. Ghar ka bhedi, lanka dhaye (A Trojan Horse can bring down the empire). It is difficult to fight a person from within one’s family. I can understand your difficulty,” Azad said. He used a Shakil Badauni couplet to convey that Modi faces threat from within due to activities and statements by RSS, VHP and BJP leaders.
“Mera azm itna buland hai ki paraye sholon ka darr nahin. Mujhe khauf aatish e gul se hai kaheen yeh chaman ko jala na de (My intentions are so high that I am not afraid of the unknown blaze I am afraid of the fire of the flowers lest it burn the garden),” said Azad.
While responding to the discussion initiated by Bhupinder Yadav and seconded by Chandan Mitra of the BJP, Azad said issues like reservation for women, security of citizens, national plan to curb communal violence, creating more IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, programmes for minority, Andhra-Telangana issues, black money, employment for youth and other such things, which the Government had talked much about earlier were conspicuously missing from the President’s speech this time.
Claiming that the BJP was a “hero in publicity” and “zero in actual work”, Azad said the Congress is vice versa. He underlined several schemes that had been initiated by the UPA Government had been renamed by the NDA. He claimed that inaugurations by Prime Minister of several projects ranging from submarines to space were all initiated by the UPA.
He also pointed to the BJP’s loss in Delhi Assembly polls, saying numbers in democracy keep changing. “You used to talk about us being reduced to 44, now you are just three in Delhi,” Azad said. Other leaders like Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) and JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav echoed similar views. BSP supremo Mayawati was critical of Government on several of its decisions in recent times.