Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s elaborate reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday touched on a slew of issues facing the country and the Government’s efforts to address them through transparent administration and effective policy intervention. Slamming the Congress, Modi compared the party to death and held it responsible for the backwardness of the nation in several areas.
Modi taunted the Congress for claiming ownership of his Government’s schemes by quoting late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as saying, “There are two kinds of people in the world... one who works and another who takes credit for it...We try to belong to the first category because there is little competition in it. This has been said by Indiraji.”
While noting that all Governments have made some contributions, the Prime Minister said, “If we work with the attitude of “hota hai, chalta hai”, it will take a long time for a big country like India to develop. We need to apply full force.”
Targeting the grand old party further, Modi likened it to “death”, saying the party never gets any blame. “Death has a blessing. It never gets blamed for anything. If somebody dies, the blame goes to reasons like cancer, old age. Death itself is never blamed. Sometimes I feel that the Congress has this blessing. If we criticise Congress, the media calls it “attack on the Opposition” but not an attack on the Congress. However, if we attack Sharad or the BSP, then it is said to be an attack on the JD(U) or the BSP. The Congress never gets the blame....It needs to be pondered as this in itself is a big science,” he said.
Modi, also referred to the qualification criteria fixed in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Haryana for those contesting panchayat polls and said this has been approved by the Supreme Court but attempts are being made to give it a “political colour”.
“There can be difference of opinion...Some say what about those who remained illiterate. The reason for illiteracy was the policies followed by the (Congress) Government after Independence. We want to bring a qualitative change but it is being politicised,” Modi said. He dared leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to give 33 per cent tickets to illiterate people to contest the upcoming Assembly elections in five States to demonstrate the Congress’ commitment in this regard.
Modi, who arrived in the House minutes before it commenced in the afternoon, walked up to Opposition benches and mingled with them. He exchanged pleasantries and shook hands with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party veteran Karan Singh and had a brief chat with Azad.
Modi appealed to the parties to withdraw the amendments by them and pass the Motion of Thanks unanimously to ensure dignity of the President’s Office and in keeping with traditions of the House.
However, despite his appeal and efforts by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Government suffered an embarrassment when the House adopted the Motion of Thanks to President’s Address with an amendment moved by Azad in a division in which 94 voted for the amendment and 61 against.
The amendment regretted that the address did not commit support to rights of all citizens to contest Panchayat elections in the backdrop of a law in Rajasthan and Haryana where Matriculation has been fixed as the criteria for contesting the polls.
Modi also invoked late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s words to say that Rajya Sabha is a chamber of ideas and there was need for coordination between it and the lok Sabha because both of them are part of a structure.
He also made a fresh pitch for passage of GST and other legislations in the Rajya Sabha considering the “conducive atmosphere” that has been prevailing in Parliament in this Session with cooperation from the Opposition.
Taking a dig at Azad for referring to alleged fault lines in Jan Dhan Yojana, Modi said that he was trying to find fault with a microscope and sarcastically thanked Azad for his role as an Opposition member. “Had you worked so hard while in Government, there would have been no need for Modi to do Jan Dhan. You went out with a microscope to see where we were lacking. Had you earlier worked with binoculars, this work would not have been left to Modi,” he said.
Contending that his Government’s focus was on good governance and transparency, Modi referred to the scams in coal blocks and 2G spectrum allocation during the UPA regime. listing the initiatives of the NDA regime on allocation of mines, spectrum and FM bandwidth, Modi also referred to a write-up in Forbes magazine, which lauded the way natural resources were being auctioned in India.
He also mentioned that over 300 projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore that were pending at various levels have been cleared by his Government. He urged the members to help the country move forward and help double the farmers’ income by 2020.
In a stinging attack on Congress over claiming ownership of Ganga cleaning, Modi said it was true the Ganga cleaning programme was initiated during late Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure but wondered why the river is still dirty after 30 years.