Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address

In Rajya Sabha

Synopsis of debate of the Leader of Opposition, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge on February 2, 2024: I welcome the address of the Hon’ble President and will try to put before you inadequacies in it. Everyone should get the benefit of education because it is most important for progress. To ensure this, reservation has been given to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes in the Constitution. But efforts are made to reduce this reservation by adopting various tactics and they are not able to get the amount of scholarship, due to them, on time; due to which they are not able to get admission.

The Government is opening big schools and colleges. This is a good thing but give them admission too. Don’t tell them that your job is only to serve, there is nothing else. You cannot read, cannot write, cannot fight for the country. According to Government data for 2022, unemployment is 13.04 percent, and the number of female graduates is 20.06 percent. If we look at the statistics of agencies, the situation is even more dangerous. Due to this unemployment, even if people are educated, the youth are not getting jobs today. Unemployment is a big issue; the Government should have paid attention to it. The Government which is eliminating these Public Sectors, one after the other, is also eliminating jobs. There are 30 lakh vacancies, and we are ignoring them. There are many vacancies in AIIMS also. The vacancy rate at AIIMS is 41 percent. There is shortage of staff in seven out of twenty hospitals. The Government opened AIIMS, built other institutions, hospitals etc. But why doesn’t the Government build it where it is necessary? The Government provides every help to those who build up Private Sectors. The Government gives them land, electricity, water, but they do not follow our rules and regulations. Public Sector came first, only then the country improved. Today the Public Sector is closing down rapidly. There is no one to ask. Earlier, trade unionists were also very alert. The Government should emphasize on the Public Sector, help it, and revive it. Public Sector is good for the poor and also for the country. Nothing was told about that either. ‘Agneepath’ Scheme has been made for 4 years. Earlier it was said that out of 100 people, 25 people would be dropped and 75 people would be retained, but today the situation is that 75 people are being dropped and 25 people are being retained. ‘Agniveer’ Scheme was to be introduced only for the Army and it planned a policy of 75 percent retention and 25 percent release from service, but the Government implemented a scheme on the Air Force and Navy and made a rule of 25 percent retention and 75 percent release policy. Everyone knows about the impact of inflation. The prices of tomato, onion, milk, groundnut oil, flour and rice have been doubled. Once the Delhi Government was defeated because of onion. Arhar dal was earlier priced at Rs. 70, today it has become priced at Rs. 150. Farmers agitated and after the movement, the Government brought some laws. The farmers opposed the laws brought by the Government and the Government had to withdraw all the three laws. The Government had promised to double their income. Along with doubling it, Government had also promised to increase the MSP. Today the income of farmers is declining by 1.5 percent annually. More than rupees one lakh crore has been surrendered to the agriculture budget in the last 5 years. ‘PM Fasal Bima Yojana’ has also failed. A total of Rs. 2,761 crores are outstanding in pending claims under ‘PM Fasal Bima Yojana’ till 2021-22. Only the agents benefit from this. The agents of the insurance scheme put hundred conditions in it, so that the farmers do not get anything. After the launch of the scheme, 2 crore, 33 lakh farmers were removed from this Scheme. The Government started giving Rs. 6,000 annually to farmers, i.e. Rs. 16 per family per day, whereas even two cups of tea are not available for. Rs 16 in a dhaba. Our demand is for caste census under social justice. We are demanding this because if caste census is conducted, then everything will be known about how many graduates are there in each caste, how many are in jobs, how much land is there. The Government can make plans based on that. This provides an X-ray of the economy.

Women’s participation in the country is 50 percent, hence they should also get 50 percent share in the labour force. The Prime Minister does not talk about the atrocities on Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and women. It is clear from the actions of the Government that they want to end reservation. UGC recently released a draft guideline on de-reservation of vacancies of reserved category candidates in higher educational institutions and filling them up with candidates from general category if reserved candidates are not available. If no candidate from reserved category is available, instead of de-reserving the entire backlog, stipend lecturers can be hired temporarily to manage the work for a few days. Whether we get anything or not, we are with this country. No matter how much trouble you give us, we will never think of separating from the country. Nothing was said about China. It has been said in the President’s address that our forces are responding with a tit-for-tat policy. But the reality is that we are leaving our land under the control of China. In this same month, Chinese soldiers stopped an Indian shepherd from entering the grazing area near Patrolling Points 35 and 36. If we are not able to stop this, they will come further in, which will lead to a huge fight and no peace will remain there. You are not visiting Manipur. Though, people are being destroyed there, their houses are burning but according to you there is peace there. Talking about the federal structure, funds were not released to the flood affected states. There is drought in half of Karnataka, but no money was given for that also. NREGA money is not being released to Bengal. There is a demand to give special category status to Andhra Pradesh, but nothing is being done in that regard.

It was said in the President’s Address that the number of airports has doubled as compared to 2014. This is far from the truth. Second, the Government said a lot of things to humiliate the Congress Party and Nehru ji time and again, but it never praised the work and contribution of Nehru ji for the country. He went to jail for the country, fought for the country, fought for freedom and laid the foundation of the five-year plan. He sacrificed everything to uphold the values of democracy. The literacy rate which was about twenty percent in 1951, increased to seventy-four percent in 2013-14. It stands at 77 percent today which means there has been only a slight increase in it during the regime of this government. Again, life expectancy was only 32 years around the time of independence which increased to 70 years in our regime. Now in this regime, the life expectancy has reduced to 69.27 years. Why is the government not conducting the 2021 census? If the government conducts the census, we will get to know how many people are literate, how much we have progressed and how much development has taken place. What was the need to change the name of Nehru Ji’s Museum? Is this democracy? If the government does this, people will lose faith in democracy. Our objective is that if there is development, if roads are constructed, hospitals are built then people belonging to every section of society will benefit from it. Only with this kind of thought-process the country can prosper. The last thing I want to say is that the poor and weaker sections should get justice. This is our policy which we will continue to follow.

In Lok Sabha

The Government should reconsider the ‘Agniveer’ scheme Synopsis of debates of Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on February 5, 2024: I do not understand the few political jargons that have been enshrined in the President’s Address. Naturally, I am little bit eager to know about the parameter or definition of what is called ‘Viksit Bharat’. Now the situation has been turning in such a rapid manner that it has created some sorts of apprehensions and fears among the minority population of our country. We should not forget the homilies and noble thoughts that were preached by Swami Vivekananda. In the President’s Address, it was stated that the new Parliament building, the magnificent building, has been constructed at the beginning of “Azadi ka Amrit Kaal”. However, hundreds of our MPs had been expelled from this august House. I would urge upon you that the august House should not be turned into a throttling chamber of democracy. Not a single thing was said about security concerns in the President’s Address. I want to ask our Defence Minister, about the condition of Ladakh. The situation from Arunachal to Ladakh is getting worse day-by-day. From 2014 till today, this Government has been failing one after the other in the arena of China policy. For the last several years, we have been repeatedly requesting that there should be a discussion about China. China is building its own port in Myanmar. Therefore, the security of the country should be paramount. The entire Opposition will stand with you. I want to say one thing that to mislead people it is being called the third economy. But I would like to ask, what is the per capita GDP in our country? The per capita GDP in our country today in the year 2023 is 2600 Dollars. Similarly, the truth of the Balakot incident has not been explained to the people till date. Also, there are 20 crore Muslims in our country and it would be better if the Government does not create fear in the minds of those people. To create a modern India, we should revolutionize information technology in our country. I would also like to say that the Government should reconsider the ‘Agniveer’ scheme. Because of this ‘Agniveer’ scheme, our relationship with Nepal is deteriorating. We all want that people of all religions should live together in our country.