Congress Rejects President's Address "Belied Expectations, Only A Propaganda"
The Congress today rejected the President”s address to the two houses of the parliament, saying it had belied all the expectations. The party reminded the BJP government of Modi’s guarantees like depositing Rs 15 lakhs in everybody’s bank accounts and generating two crore jobs every year, both of which, besides many other guarantees, found no mention in the President’s address today, the last of this parliamentary tenure. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the President”s speech is only a propaganda and an advertisement of Modi ji and was totally political.
Senior party leaders Gaurav Gogoi and Shaktisinh Gohil while addressing a press conference today, said that the President’s address was prepared by the government. It is, he says, the report card of the incumbent government. They said, that since it was the last session of the ten-year reign of Prime Minister Modi, people expected the government to present its report card, which it failed to do. Gohil said the address was disappointing as there was no mention of the promises Modi had made during 2014 and 2019.
Referring to Modi’s promises, Gohil said, there was no mention of the black money as Modi had promised to get back the black money parked abroad and deposit Rs 15 lakhs each in every Indian’s bank account. Modi had promised to generate two crore jobs every year which would make it twenty crore jobs by now, he noted. While the President’s address does mention providing a few lakh jobs, it was silent on the ‘20 crore jobs promise, he added.
Gohil also pointed out Modi’s promise of doubling the farmers’ income. He said that the income of the farmers had either come down or remained the same as it was ten years ago, while the input costs like the prices of diesel, fertilizers and seeds have doubled. Gohil further reminded the Prime Minister about the double-digit growth he had promised. He said, from its admission, the government has admitted that it has not gone beyond 7.5 per cent.
Speaking on the occasion, Gaurav Gogoi said, the country expected the President to take note of the suspension of 146 MPs just because they were demanding their rights. “There was no concern in the address as to how democracy was getting trampled in the country,” he said. Referring to the new parliament building, Gogoi said it had no longer remained the country’s parliament or the temple of democracy but was ending up as a memorial of the PM that BJP wanted to create for him. He also alleged that democracy was being trampled upon in this parliament and laws were being bulldozed in the country after suspending the opposition members.
Gogoi said the democratic institutions were being destroyed and the elected governments were established by the misuse of the ED. He observed that people’s confidence and trust in democracy was eroding.
The Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha pointed out, there was no mention of national security. Nor was there any mention of how the Chinese soldiers were trying to intimidate Indian farmers in the Ladakh region. Mr Gogoi further noted that they did not expect anything from the budget being presented tomorrow. Some other Congress leaders including the MP Shashi Tharoor accused the president”s speech as an election address of the government.
