President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday hailed the Modi Government’s big-ticket reforms in the last 10 years and mentioned that the centuries-old desire to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya has now become a reality, while apprehensions over the abrogation of Article 370 are a thing of the past.
In her first address to a joint sitting of the two Houses in the new Parliament building, during which she touched on varied issues ranging from insurgency to inflation, Murmu said a country can progress at a fast pace only when it defeats the challenges of the past and puts maximum energy into building the future.
Murmu arrived in a buggy at Parliament House to deliver her address to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. She entered the House with the “sengol” being carried in front of her. She asserted that the armed forces were giving a befitting reply to terrorism and expansionism. Murmu also mentioned that India is now a prominent voice against terrorism in the world.
The government, she said, believes that the grand edifice of a developed India will stand on the four strong pillars of youth power, women power, farmers, and the poor. “In the last 10 years, the country has witnessed the completion of projects for which the people had waited for decades. There was a desire for building the Ram Mandir for centuries, and today it has become a reality,” she said to thumping desks from the treasury benches. “In cultural history, there are some milestones that decide the future of centuries. In India’s history also, there have been numerous such milestones. On January 22, the country witnessed one such milestone. After a centuries-long wait, Ram Lalla now resides in a grand temple in Ayodhya,” she said. She said there were apprehensions over the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir “but they have become history now.”
There is an environment of peace and security in Jammu & Kashmir, with vibrancy in markets instead of the “silence of shutdowns” witnessed in the past, the President said. Incidents of insurgency have gone down in the Northeast, she asserted. The government has also established strict laws against triple talaq, she said. She also mentioned that the Indian economy, which used to be among the “fragile five”, is now moving in the right direction and at the right pace due to several reforms undertaken by the government in the last 10 years.
“According to the NITI Aayog, in the 10-year rule of my government, nearly 25 crore people have come out of poverty,” she said. “We have been hearing slogans of eradicating poverty for a long time; now, for the first time, we are seeing poverty being eradicated on a large scale,” she said.
Over the past decade, Murmu said, the government has made good governance and transparency the cornerstones of every system. “My government is continuously working on making it easy to do business in India and creating a suitable environment for it,” she said. Murmu mentioned that the government is working with full commitment to empower MSMEs and small entrepreneurs. Earlier, the country’s inflation rate was in double digits and is now within 4 per cent, she said. Murmu congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Setting a new precedent, President Murmu entered the new Parliament Building escorted by Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, with an official carrying the ‘Sengol,’ adopted as a cultural symbol by the government.
Ahead of President Murmu’s arrival, Rajeev Sharma, a senior Marshal in the Lok Sabha dressed in traditional attire with a decorated scarf and a turban, removed the Sengol and walked in a procession with Speaker Birla, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Secretaries General of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Utpal Kumar Singh and PC Mody in tow, amid drum rolls.
Vice President Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Lok Sabha Speaker Birla welcomed her at the Gaja Dwar of the Parliament building and proceeded to the Lok Sabha chamber in a procession led by the officer carrying the Sengol reverentially.
A band of musicians played the ‘Hathroi’ tune as the President entered the Lok Sabha chamber amid loud applause from the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha assembled together. Slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Jai Siya Ram’, and ‘Jai Jagannath’ filled the air as President Murmu took her seat in the Chamber.
The Sengol was placed in front of the President’s desk throughout her address and accompanied Murmu until the Gaja Dwar of the Parliament building as she exited the chamber after her speech. The gold-plated sceptre was later placed in its case next to the Speaker’s chair.
As many as 58 diplomats, including the ambassadors of Brazil, Egypt, Maldives, and Nepal, and the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, were in attendance.
Attendance was thin for President Murmu’s address to the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, as many empty seats were seen in the cavernous Lok Sabha chamber that has a seating capacity of 888 persons.
The President’s 75-minute speech was punctuated with frequent applause and thumping of desks by the members of the ruling alliance. The loudest applause was heard when President Murmu mentioned the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill and the building of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
The Lok Sabha chamber reverberated with chants of Jai Shri Ram and Jai Siya Ram when she said, “Ram Lalla has now been enshrined in his grand temple in Ayodhya after waiting for centuries.”
The President quoted from poems by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and famous Odiya poet Utkalmani Gopalbandhu Das during her speech.
While the ruling party members applauded Murmu at regular intervals during her address, the Opposition members listened to the speech in silence, barring a stray “no reference to Manipur” remark from Congress member TN Prathapan.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of the Congress in Parliament Sonia Gandhi were seated in the first row, which was occupied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, BJP president JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Arjun Munda, Smriti Irani, Narayan Rane, Virendra Kumar and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Two seats, allotted to former prime ministers HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh remained vacant. While Gowda was seen sitting in the last row, Singh was not present in the House.