Congress’ Rahul Gandhi’s speech during a debate on the President’s address, focused on 3 main points: creation of two Indias, one rich and one poor; destruction of institutions, and the security threat the nation faces from the coming together of China and Pakistan, writes Amit Agnihotri
The Opposition, led by Congress Lok Sabha member Rahul Gandhi, attacked the Centre in Parliament saying government policies had created two Indias over the past seven years.
Rahul slammed the Centre while speaking during a debate on President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint sitting of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha on January 31, which marked the start of the Budget session of Parliament.
According to the Congress leader, the Presidential address mentioned a lot of things that the government claimed to have done but didn’t really contain the deeper strategic issues that the country wanted to hear.
“It looked to me as if it had been constructed not by the vision of leadership, but by a group of bureaucrats, who had simply to put something down on paper. So, what did the Presidential address miss? I think there are three fundamental things that were not spoken about in the Presidential address,” said Rahul.
His speech focused on three main points, creation of two Indias, one rich and one poor, due to government policies, destruction of institutions, and the threat to national security from the coming together of rivals China and Pakistan.
Elaborating on the issues, Rahul said: “The first and what I consider to be the most important is the idea that there are now two Indias. There is now no longer one India. One India is for the extremely rich people – for those who have immense wealth, for those who have immense power, for those who do not need a job, for those who do not need water connections, electricity connections, but, for those who control the heartbeat of the country; and then another India for the poor.”
Highlighting that lack of jobs was affecting the youth, the Congress leader said that there has been a 46 per cent drop in manufacturing jobs in the country and alleged the government had destroyed the unorganised sector.
“You are focusing completely on five or ten people. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t have a problem with big industries, focus on them, but please realise that they cannot produce jobs for you. Small and medium industries are the only people who can produce jobs for you, that is the reality,” Rahul said.
