PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi “misused” Parliament and lowered the dignity of his office and that of the two Houses by delivering “political” speeches with an eye on the Assembly elections in five states while replying to the discussion on the President’s Address, opposition parties said on Tuesday. Most of the opposition leaders said Modi spoke as a BJP leader on “campaign” and not as Prime Minister.
In his back-to-back speeches in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday, the Prime Minister focused his attention on targeting the Congress, citing past instances to mainly argue that the main opposition party has no political and moral right to question him and his government on issues, including federalism, freedom of speech and Covid management.
While the Congress was visibly upset with the Prime Minister’s speech, many of the other parties such as the CPI(M), which had been at the receiving end of “highhandedness” of Congress governments in the past, too, were unimpressed. In fact, the Left was scathing on the Prime Minister.
In Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the Prime Minister spoke about how Congress governments at the Centre had dismissed opposition state governments, including the first elected Communist government of Kerala in 1959.
Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the debate in Parliament was not about the Congress, its history and its governance record. “The debate was on the President’s Address… on what his government has done and what it plans to do. Instead, he targeted the Congress. Because there are elections in five states. And he gave an election speech,” he said.
“We had raised several issues in both the Houses – be it on economy, unemployment, inflation, Covid management, Chinese aggression, achievement of various government schemes like the one on housing. He did not reply to any of those. He did not give any data. Instead, he focused on Nehru, taunted him. If you wanted to say all these, you should have gone to the five election-bound states and spoken there. You are standing in Parliament…people are keen to know what the government plans to do for them…” Kharge said.
He said the Prime Minister tried to shift the blame of his government’s failure on Covid management on opposition governments. “He blamed the state governments for the exodus of migrant workers. Who ran the Shramik special trains? The government had told Parliament that it had run 4,621 Shramik special trains transporting 63.19 lakh people. And who transported the most. Gujarat…your state. The maximum number of trains, 1,033, left from Gujarat. So, was Modi sending people to spread Covid? Only 817 trains left from Maharashtra,” he said.
Most of the opposition leaders argued it was unbecoming of a Prime Minister to have rendered such a “political” speech on the President’s Address.
“It was a campaign speech. The Prime Minister of the country was not speaking. It was BJP leader Modi speaking. The Prime Minister misused Parliament to give a campaign speech…for instance he spoke about Goa’s liberation today…what was the need,” Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut told The Indian Express.
Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray agreed. “He went out of the way to attack the opposition on flimsy grounds. We had raised several specific issues related to hunger index, poverty index, development index, economic inequality, the alarming economic situation etc etc. I myself had raised those issues quoting facts and figures when I spoke. The Prime Minister did not deny any of those figures, which means he has accepted that.”
“The entire speech of the Prime Minister was full of rhetoric, only criticising the Congress. We are not concerned with the BJP or Congress. We are concerned about the economy of the country, unemployment, poverty…It was an election speech.. what he should have delivered at a public speech, he misused the Upper House for the purpose of making political gains…it was unprecedented.”
“He did not reply to any of the charges that we had levelled. It was only politics…accusing the Congress most of the times. We gave facts regarding employment, price rise…. We expected a speech from the Prime Minister. Some political digs will always be there. But the speech can’t be full of that,” said senior DMK leader Tiruchi Siva.
Incidentally, the BJD, which is seen as a fence sitter, too argued that the Prime Minister delivered a political speech with an eye on elections. “It was a very strong political speech, sending political messages to the states where elections are being held. But I appreciate the fact that the Prime Minister openly praised Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for successfully implementing reforms in the mining sector. In Odisha, his own party levels baseless allegations against the government and the Chief Minister… So the Prime Minister has denied all that,” said BJD leader Prasanna Acharya.
CPI(M)’s Elamaram Kareem said the Prime Minister delivered a “cheap” political speech. “Some of the things that he said attacking the Congress cannot be denied. Like the dismissal of many elected state governments by Congress central governments, including in Kerala, and the imposition of Emergency and all… but the Prime Minister was replying to the President’s Address. It has to have some standard. He delivered a cheap political speech,” he said.
“Instead of countering the political criticisms that the Opposition had made, he launched a political attack on the Congress… akin to what