The Opposition parties on Monday slammed the Government on issues of communalism, farmers suicide, price rise and claims of development and black money in the Rajya Sabha during the Motion of Thanks on President’s speech. Congress member Ashwani Kumar attacked the Government saying: “For the last few months, incidents of communal violence have gone up in several States... I am happy that the Prime Minister made a statement on it but it took him nine months to do so. It is unfortunate that the issue was not given importance in the President’s speech,” said Kumar. He alleged that citizen’s right to privacy is being violated by security agencies like NATGRID, police and Defence through telephone tappings. Kumar demanded enactment of a law on this.
Kumar also was critical of Government for its decision on not to appeal against the Bombay High Court order in favour of Vodafone in the transfer pricing case. He said the Government talked of tax uniformity but at the same time it was not making any attempt to prevent public money from going to foreign firms in the name of transfer pricing.
Navaneetha Krishnan (AIADMK) urged the Government to create Cauvery Management Board in line with the Supreme Court order to save Tamil Nadu from severe water crisis. Kiranmay Nanda (SP) said the Government cannot succeed by merely selling dreams of good days that are to come. “It should not happen that achchhe din (good days) turn out to be worse than purane din (older days). This Government does not have any concrete plan to implement its promises, rather it appears to be neglecting serious issues like farmers suicides, blackmoney and pollution,” he said. Bhupinder Singh (BJD) sought higher support price for farmers, while being critical of budgetary allocation for his State, Odisha.
Congress member Pramod Tewari argued that the claims of progress by the NDA Government were not true as the main efforts were made by the UPA Government and the Government was reaping what UPA Government had sowed. Targeting on the petrol prices, Tewari said that UPA Government had purchased petrol at $170 a barrel and sold in the domestic market at $70 a barrel, while the NDA Government brought petrol at $50 and sold at $60 a barrel. Tewari also wanted the BJP to withdraw its Ministers in the Jammu & Kashimir Cabinet after the new Chief Minister thanked terrorists for peaceful Assembly elections.
Joy Abraham (Kerala Congress-M) urged the Government to include dairy farming under MNREGA and promote the concept of ‘Grow in India’ like ‘Make in India’ to benefit farmers. Rajni Patil (Congress) raised the issue of growing crime against women while Pyarimohan Mohapatra (Ind) talked about farmers’ issues and land acquisition.