Congress picks holes in govt claims, cites job numbers, terror attacks

While leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said there was “nothing new” in the President’s address, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said PM’s slogan of “sabka saath, sabka vikas” had become “RSS ka saath, aur BJP ka vikas”.

Azad added that the economic survey had pointed out that GDP growth rate will slow by half a percentage point and that industrial growth will dip. He pointed out that IMF too had slashed its India growth projection for the current fiscal year by a full point to 6.6 per cent.

Talking about the surgical strikes, he asked the government to explain the rise in terrorist violence. “There is a contradiction. The government will have to explain this contradiction,” he said. He claimed that casualties suffered by armed forces in the last two and a half years were more than that during the UPA rule.

Referring to concern expressed in the President’s address about the situation at the border and incidents of terrorist violence, he added: “Merely expressing concern is not enough…where is the solution. Prime Minister fought half the election on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir….it was repeatedly said that ours was a weak government…what is happening now.”

Taking on the government on other issues, Azad said: “There has been a 45 per cent spurt in farmer suicides. Unemployment has been on the rise. The budgetary allocation for the Scheduled Castes have been cut… Every section is feeling neglected.” he said.

Both Azad and Kharge demanded a discussion on demonetisation, attempts to erode the autonomy of institutions and rise in ceasefire violations.

“Half of the President’s address is a repetition of what the government had been saying in the last two years…There is nothing new in it… There is word play…All the words in the dictionary related to poor have been used…It talks about garib, dalit, peedit, shoshit, vanchit, kisan, shramik and yuva… but there are no programmes,” said Kharge.