New Delhi
The debate on the motion of thanks on the President's address in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday saw BJP members, including Jagdambika Pal, targeting the opposition, especially Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while TMC senior leader Sougata Roy took pot shots at the Modi government. Kamlesh Paswan, BJP member from Bansgaon UP, in his statement on the motion of thanks to the President's address, hit out at the Congress and said their popular slogan of "Garibi Hatao" had remained just a slogan as nothing was done to eradicate poverty during their long decades in power.
Paswan said it was a shame that in the 21st century people in India are still talking in terms of drinking water connection in their homes, toilets, a roof over their heads, which should have been provided to them during the earlier Congress regimes. Paswan said by constructing toilets PM Modi has benefitted women, who would otherwise have to wait the entire day so that they could go to the fields in the dark to relieve themselves. He said Uttar Pradesh never had electricity for more than seven hours in a day earlier, and under the Yogi government it is getting electricity for 18-20 hours a day. Attacking the Samajwadi Party, he said: “And now Akhilesh Yadav is doing jumla baji and promising the people free bijli. Earlier they had their own government but never bothered.” He said that UP was a den of mafias and goondas, including in Gorakhpur.
“But after the Yogi government came, the goondas and mafia are either in jail, or outside the state, or have gone up,” he said, meaning that the goondas have been killed in police encounters. TMC's Sougata Roy, opposing the motion of thanks, said the president's address only listed the various yojanas announced by the government and there was “nothing new” in the address. “Why was the Amar Jawan Jyoti extinguished? Was it because it was started by Indira Gandhi,” he asked, and alleged ”Mr Modi wants to delete history”. He also asked why the West Bengal government's tableau on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was turned down for the Republic Day parade. He also said that the “laser beam hologram of Netaji has vanished” from India Gate, “and with it the BJP's love for Netaji”. He said the BJP and Netaji were never together. Roy alleged that PM Modi was hitting at the structure of federalism and secularism of the country. He asked why states can't hold their own medical exams, referring to the opposition by some states to the NEET exam. “The PM wants the control of medical seats all over the country,” he charged.
He accused the Modi government of rewriting history, and said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is far from normal after removal of Article 370. Roy termed the Rs 20,000 crore being spent on the Central Vista project as a “waste” and alleged that public money was being spent “to build a Taj Mahal for Modi". He said they will continue to raise the issue, Jagdambika Pal, of the BJP, strongly rebutted allegations by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who had said that the Modi government has created “two Indias” -- of the rich and poor. Pal said that before 2014 there were 14,000 villages without electricity, or toilets, or even concrete roofs. “Was that not two nations,” he asked the Congress. He said the Modi government has brought electricity to 4.5 crore homes since he came to power in 2014. “In 2014 there were two crore people without homes, living under torn plastic sheets.
The PM has given over two crore people homes with concrete roofs over their heads and over one crore more homes have been sanctioned,” He said since 2014, the government has built 10 crore toilets, provided over eight crore free gas connections to rural women to save them from having to rely on burning wood to cook food. “It is obvious that we are trying to bridge the gap (between the haves and have nots). Under the MNREGA in 10 years Rs 1.96 lakh crore has been spent in 10 years; it is obvious that we have created employment.” He rebutted Rahul Gandhi's allegation that Pakistan and China have come together against India, and said that today the two countries stand isolated in the world, which is thanks to PM Modi. “It was said that the PM has isolated our country and there is no one with us.. I want to say that it is for the first time we have a PM who has been presented with the top awards by several countries”, he said and listed the awards presented by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc.
“If anyone has done anything to isolate China and Pakistan, it is the Modi Sarkar,” he said and referred to the Quad Dialogue, which he termed the greatest threat to China's security. “All the countries are standing with India on the China issue.” Hibi Eden, of the Congress from Ernakulam, said that PM Modi had brought the slogan of “Sabka saath, sabka vikas” and in 2020 he added “sabka Vishwas” to it and now he has added “sabka prayas” to it. He alleged that the Modi government failed to give its “saath” – support – those suffering from Covid, or the protesting farmers, or Dalits and the oppressed. He alleged that the Modi government has only given support to Adani and Ambani. “Modi government is working only for Adani and Ambani's vikas,” he said.