‘Address in distress’, retorts Congress

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation, the Congress challenged the Centre to move a bill in Parliament to implement the women’s quota within the existing Lok Sabha setup. The party termed the PM’s speech a “distress address” rather than a national address.

Soon after the prime minister’s address to the nation in which he attacked the opposition parties for not backing the government’s Constitution amendment bill, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said a sitting PM’s address to the nation has a sanctity to it and is meant to be a non-partisan address intended to build national resolve and confidence.

Reacting to the PM’s broadcast, Ramesh told reporters that it was a “Congress-abuse address”.

“This pathetic partisan and polemical attack — a Distress Address rather than a National Address — would have been more appropriate in a Press Conference. But as unhinged as he is by the extraordinary legislative humiliation he suffered in the Lok Sabha last night, the non-grihasthi Prime Minister is still too much of a coward to face the media,” Ramesh said on X.

The prime minister has apologised for failing to see his Constitution amendment bill through the Lok Sabha, but what he should have apologised for is his “shameless, deceitful” attempts to push through a “devious delimitation” proposal in the name of women, Ramesh said. Ramesh said, among the prime minister’s more laughable claims was that the Congress opposed the Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile and the GST — both “entirely Congress creations”.

Pointing out that Modi ended his speech stating that there was a ‘waqt ka intezaar’ for women’s reservation, Ramesh said there is no need for a ‘muhurat’ to give India’s women their due.