February 4, 2025
Sougata Ray’s speech during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address
Sir, I rise to speak on the President’s Address. I speak in favour of all the amendments that I moved. The President’s Address hides one fact that this Government is not a one-party Government. It is an NDA Government. But Prime Minister Modi ji behavesas if it is a one-party Government not admitting that his Party did not get a majority in the Lok Sabha. The hon. President repeats the slogans like Stand-Up India, Start-Up India, Digital India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Lakhpati Didi, and Nari Shakti without mentioning the success of the schemes. Sir, Akhilesh ji has spoken at length on the Kumbh tragedy. I do not want to deliberate further. But it is one of the worst tragedies in independent India. And the responsibility for this failure is entirely that of the State and the Central Governments. All we want to know is the number of people died in Kumbh. They should come out with the facts. That is my demand. The worst thing is that the President’s Address did not mention Manipur which has seen ethnic clashes for more than a year. The hon. President herself is a tribaland tribals have died in Manipur. Recently,a tape has surfaced which was produced in the Supreme Court yesterday which says that the Manipur Chief Minister incited violence against the tribals of Manipur. We want the hon. Prime Minister to visit Manipur immediately. The President’s Address does not mention the problems of kisan. This is the country of Kisansand Kisans are on the warpath. The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha has been leading an agitation for some time. All they want is a statutory arrangement for the minimum support price. Sir, Dallewal is on hunger strike till death. There was no mention in the President’s Address on the kisan agitation. There is no mention of the State’s demand. We in West Bengal are up against the deprivation of West Bengal in the Central Budget. Not only us, several States like Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Telangana have complained that no allocations have been made in the name of the State’s budget. The hon. President does not mention how equitable distribution of wealth may be made between the Centre and the States. In West Bengal, still Rs. 7,500 crore are due under MGNREGA. The hon. President does not make any mention of that. The President’s speech does not mention that the growth is going down. After she spoke, rupee value has come down to Rs.87 per dollar. The President does not care that the growth is going down. Modi going to US will not improve the state of the rupee. Sir, the Centre and the BJP are dividing the people. There are many problems in our country. But the Centre is busy in passing the Waqf Act. What is the urgency of the Waqf Act? States are bringing different laws. Uttarakhand has brought Uniform Civil Code. Rajasthan has brought an anti-conversion law. While the President will take a dip during Kumbh and prostrate in the Ram Mandir, the RSS Chief says that Independence came only when Ram Mandir was established. Sir, the Muslims feel left out. The Government is not creating an atmosphere of unity in the country. They are bent on taking steps which will divide the people. In the President’s speech, mention is made of Jammu and Kashmir. For the first time in the history of the Constitution, a State was made into a Union Territory. The President’s Speech does not mention anything about when Jammu and Kashmir would be given full statehood. The President’s speech says that India is the third largest economy. It is a boost. But do we have any idea of where we stand? We are struggling to go to five trillion dollars in size of the economy, but China is at 19 trillion; US is at 32 trillion. With less than five trillion dollars, we are saying that we have gone great guns and the economy has developed. Sir, the need to catch up with China in manufacturing and electronic goods is not mentioned. Yesterday, Mr. Rahul Gandhi mentioned that the whole of the mobile phone is manufactured in China. We are having problem with pollution. We need electric buses. The lithium battery is manufactured in China. I want to ask what progress has been achieved in 10 years of Make in India. Even in artificial intelligence, we are setting up a mission whereas China has already beaten US. US had a company called OpenAI. China started a company called Deepseek which has beaten OpenAI in artificial intelligence. The President’s speech does not mention the handicap we have in artificial intelligence. While we are speaking as if India were all well, in Assam, seven workers have died in rathole mining. We send our workers down into ratholes. They don’t survive. Still in the country, 40 per cent is manual scavenging. Just two days ago in Kolkata, three people died in manual scavenging. The President’s speech does not mention the problem of manual scavenging in the country. The President does not mention the worsening of mental well-being of Indians with over-exposure to social media, lack of exercises, less family ties, and overwork. Sir, the speech does not mention about the unhealthy work culture in IT companies. It does not mention that some industrialists are saying that 90 hours of work should be there. If we cannot create a healthy atmosphere for the workers, the country will ultimately not progress. The President’s Speech does not mention unemployment. It does not mention the large number of vacancies in Railways and other Government Departments. The speech, if you see, is silent on pollution. Here, sitting in Delhi, the President herself is affected by pollution. It is killing. It is a slow killer of our people. Now in Delhi, during this winter, air pollution AQI went up to 400. The President is silent on that. The electric buses have not come. Vehicular pollution has become the major source of pollution. The President is totally silent on that. The President does not mention the drug problem in the country. We have seen Udta Punjab, how drugs have affected Punjab. Now the President is silent. The Narcotics Control Bureau has failed to catch those drug smugglers. A large number of our youths are unemployed on one side, they are on the other side. सर, ड्रग्स स्मगि होती है, िेवकन पकड़ी नहीं जाती है। सबसेज्यादा ड्रग्स मंद्रुा पोटिसेआती है। मंद्रुा पोटिका माविक कौन है– अदाणी! यह तो हाित है। The President does not speak about unsettled conditions in our neighbouring countries. Pakistan is unsettled. Sri Lanka is unsettled. But Bangladesh is most unsettled. There is an attack on Hindus in Bangladesh. Temples are destroyed. I do not know why the Hindutvawala Prime Minister, who prostrates in the Ram Temple, is silent on the atrocities of Hindus in Bangladesh? It is he who has to reply. The Speech does not speak about monopolies. The same family owns airports, sea ports and cement companies. The President does not speak anything about removing monopolies. The same company is controlling the petroleum and petrochemical industry. The President is silent, meaning silence is encouraging them. Sir, no mention is made about cleaning the Ganga. The Prime Minister started big that he will clean up the Ganga. Now, in the President’s Speech, no mention is made of that. Ganga flows by my constituency also. It is polluted. Pollution in Ganga is creating major health problems in the areas adjoining the Ganga River. The President does not speak anything on that. The President does not mention it. She has spoken about naari shakti. But she has not mentioned about our naaris, women wrestlers being molested. She has remained silent about the BJP MP being accused of molesting our medal-winning women wrestlers. The President hides and the President does not reveal the facts. You must read the Economic Survey. I think, it is a very good document. One of the points it makes is about mental well-being. The other point it makes is that exorbitant private college fees deny underprivileged access to medical colleges. Vande Bharat and Namo Bharat are good trains. It is a good effort. But has the Railway Minister gone once and seen the condition of passengers on the local trains in Kolkata? People ride on the trains like cattle. As my friend Kalyan Banerjee mentions, the Railway Minister is starting new trains. But the food in Rajdhani trains is getting worse and worse. : So, you are on the top. You are building a railway into Jammu and Kashmir. It is a good thing. But what about the trains that are there? They are in a horrible condition. You do not get time to take trains these days. Do yougo to Domariyaganj by train or by car? … आपबोितेहैंवक ‘उड़ान योजना’ के तहत आप कुिीनगर हिाई जहाज सेजा सकतेहैं, िेवकन हिाई जहाज सेकौन जा रहा है? गांि के िोगों केपास पैसेही नहीं हैं। येसबवमसिीवडंग करनेिािी बातेंहैं। Sir, I want to say that the President certainly mentioned that the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee is being celebrated. I come from the area where Dr. Syama Prasad lived. He is not worshipped in Bengal because he never went to jail during the British period. He led a Ministry called Shyama-Haq Ministry in Bengal. So, you may worship him. You may worship Savarkar. The President may. We do not worship them because they compromised with the Britishers. This is the basic difference between you and us. I have heard that in education we have made progress. Do you know that there is not a single Indian university in the first 200 universities of the world? There is Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT. Like that, Chinese universities are there. Singapore universities are there. Australian universities are there. There is not even one Indian university among the top universities. Sir, I will now slowly wind up. Basically, the President’s Government is a Government which uses communalism to further its political end. It is a Government which compromises with the monopoly without looking into the well-being of the people. That is why, I cannot support this speech. It is only spreading hatred and differences. We cannot tolerate it. I am told that the Prime Minister is going to US. I request him to act not like the Mexican President. At least, persuade Trump not to increase tariffs on India. You know that on the Budget day, our stock markets did not move. They did not rise because they all look from here to what Trump does. With this, I oppose the President’s speech and I support my amendments. Thank you.
