Picture : ANI/ X
The Opposition have dismissed President Droupadi Murmu’s address to a joint sitting of Parliament as “directionless” and a “document of lies” even as ruling BJP and allies welcomed it saying it presents a vision for ‘viksit Bharat’.
The Opposition said the President’s address should provide a direction to the country but this was just a document of government propaganda.
“This is a directionless speech, no new direction was shown to the nation. Old schemes of the government were repeated, so it appeared that the President was tired of speaking. There was nothing in the speech,” Trinamool Congress’ Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy told reporters outside Parliament.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor told media outside parliament, “It was a very predictable speech, unfortunately. No real surprises in what the President said. It’s her job to praise her own government and she did that. But what we are concerned about what was omitted from her speech. The things the government has failed to accomplish, matters at which the government is not doing very well. The situation of the economy today… the fact that the aam aadmi, the middle class are hurting today. The fact that unemployment is so high, even educated youth don’t have jobs. There was no acknowledgement in the President’s speech about what the ordinary citizen of India is experiencing everyday.”
Congress’ Rajya Sabha member Randeep Singh Surjewala said the speech failed to provide any direction to the nation.
“The President’s address should provide a direction to the country, but it was just a document of government propaganda. She mentioned Kumbh, but should the government’s responsibility not be fixed? Did she give any vision on controlling price rise?” he told reporters outside Parliament.
“She did not mention that the poorest 50 per cent pay 64 per cent of the GST, and ten per cent richest people pay five per cent GST. She did not name China, which is occupying land in Ladakh. She did not talk about wealth inequality,” Surjewala said.
Samajwadi Party chief and Lok Sabha member Akhilesh Yadav said the President should have spoken on how much money is being spent on the Maha Kumbh.
“The President should have given information about how much money has been spent on Kumbh, how much more assistance the central government is going to give. Central government is saying there will be trade worth Rs 2,00,000 crore… Has Kumbh been organised to do business?” he told reporters outside Parliament.
His party colleague and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav called the speech a “document of lies”.
“This is a document of lies. The real situation of the country is not reflected in the speech. Where do we stand in the Global Hunger Index? We are in the category of countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tanzania,” he said.
CPI’s P Sandosh Kumar said the speech is only another addition to “disparaging speeches delivered by the President of India continuously during these years”.
“There was no vision, no plan for the future, simply repeating the claims made by the government of India,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha suggested that the President should be able to express her own views rather than reading from a document prepared by the government.
“I would only say we should start a new tradition, the President should be able to express her own views, not just the rhetorical things the government has written. The President knows how deep the pain of unemployment is, how low is communal harmony, how income inequality is affecting this country… Manipur is still burning,” he said.
