After addressing the Lok Sabha yesterday for the first time after coming back to power with an overwhelming majority, Prime Minister Modi spoke in the Rajya Sabha today replying to the ‘Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address’.
At the beginning of his address, PM Modi termed the election process in the country as a matter of global pride. He lauded women voters for coming out in large numbers to vote and thus for the first time reducing the gap that had been there between men and women in terms of the voter turnout. He thanked the police and security forces for successful completion of elections.
Calling ‘EVM blaming’ the ‘latest disease’, the Prime Minister slammed the opposition parties for holding the EVMs responsible for their failure in the Lok Sabha elections. He came down heavily on the Congress for their arrogance and entitlement despite having ruled the country for several years.
“Politics of negativity must end”, the PM urged. Speaking on electoral reforms, PM Modi said that political parties should respect voters’ intellect. He rejected the apprehensions of the opposing political parties that regional parties will lose if elections are held simultaneously giving the example of Odisha where Biju Janata Dal (BJD) managed to win the Assembly elections despite the BJP scoring massive gains in Lok Sabha seats.
The Prime Minister hit out at Congress for having an obstructionist approach and opposing every scheme launched by the BJP government, even the ones like Aadhar that were introduced during the UPA regime.
He said that the government is trying to root out corruption through technology and that the country cannot move ahead without technology. He said that the opposition wants the old India back where cabinet decisions were torn apart during a media conference, where the Navy was involved for family tours of the Gandhi family, where the Tukde-Tukde gang was blatantly supported and so on. He emphasised that the voters of the country have chosen a new India.
PM Modi condemned the Jharkhand mob attack and said that the guilty should be granted the strictest punishment. However, he warned the people who are putting the blame on the entire State for the incident and said that double standards should not be applied to different incidents of crimes happening across the States. He said that the entire State should not be maligned because of one such incident and that law should be allowed to take its own course. He called out the Congress party for giving respectable positions to the accused of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and asked it to introspect before preaching.
Speaking on the issue of NRC, he said that the government is committed to implementing the NRC. He attacked Congress again for opposing it while it was the Rajiv Gandhi government that had accepted the NRC in the Assam accord. He said that it is the belief of his party that had Patel been the PM, Kashmir issue would not have existed.
PM Modi expressed concern over the outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar. He termed the AES outbreak as one of the biggest of all failures of the governments in the past decades. He said that people should be made aware of vaccination, safety, and other health benefits.
Drawing the attention of the House to the water crisis, PM Modi told that 226 districts in the country are facing a water crisis. Stressing the need the make society aware of the issue of the water crisis, he said that the Jal Shakti Ministery will work to address the issues.
