March 3, 2016
15 points from Derek O’Brien’s speech on Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address
15 points from Derek O’Brien’s speech on Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address
1) The President’s speech was 5482 words. How I wish it was 5486 words! I was looking for four words – diversity, tolerance, communal harmony. They weren’t there.
2) The PM did a hatchet job on MNREGA last year. But this year, the tune was a little different. Still, MNREGA funds have been stopped to many states. Bengal is right up there on MNREGA
3) India’s GDP growth is 7.3%. Very good, but in Bengal, we’re growing at 12.5%. The lowest rate of inflation in India is in Bengal: 3%.
4) You say you trust the poor, if you say you trust the farmers, what happened to the Land Acquisition Bill? We’ve been asking from day one, please withdraw the Land Acquisition Bill. Why the delay?
5) We will debate this for 12 hours. In these 12 hours, 12 farmers will die in India. While India’s agri-GDP grew at 1.1%, in Bengal, agriculture grew at 5.5%.
6) The 1984 riots happened under the Congress’ watch . The 2002 riots happened under the BJP’s watch . And it is these two who indulge in what Barkha Dutt calls the “chessboard of competitive communalism”.
7) The Government gives with one hand, but from the States, it takes with two hands. So many centrally funded schemes have been stopped and the States have been paying higher percentage in the schemes.
8) If this Government talks about federalism, I beseech them, ask us how to do it, we will tell you how to do it. Bengal provides medicines and healthcare free of cost at all State hospitals. Ask us how to do it, we will tell you how to do it. Bengal is number one in this country in child immunisation. Ask us how to do it, we will tell you how to do it. Eighty-two Fair-Price Diagnostic Centres, 109 Fair-Price Medicine Shops – again I say, ask us how to do it, we will tell you how to do it.
9) Youth is the future of our country. If we are saying youth is the future of our country, then my friends in the Government , why are you stifling the youth, why are you stifling intellectual freedom? Instead of empowering the youth, the Government is throwing the youth into jails.
10) The President’s Address says the Government has started yielding results on black money. Yes, but they are bad results, as bad as UPA II.
11) There is a story that RSS has a unique medical school where they don’t teach you gynaecology or cardiology. They teach you “Video-Doctor-ology”
12) When you haven’t delivered on jobs, when you haven’t delivered on farmers, when you haven’t delivered on manufacturing, when you haven’t delivered on election promises, what do you do? You change the narrative.
13) The Congress spoke about ‘Fair and Lovely’ We are talking about ‘Close Ups’ (between Congress and CPI(M)). I come from a State where we know what stifling of education, stifling of intellectual freedom is all about, because for 34 years- the party decided who would teach, the party decided what you would learn, the party decided how you would think, the party decided which comrade would be the VC, the party even decided…how to make a blue sky red. With blood.
14) Pandit Nehru summed up the Left very well: “The Communist Party’s unfortunate association with violence encourages a certain evil tendency in human beings”. I am a confirmed enemy of Communist party and I will remain so, I will remain so, I will remain so.
15) Political violence, Rajnoitik Hingsha, Rajniti Ka hingsa, political violence the A-Z of political violence, I can tell you the lexicon of political violence. The lexicon A-Z:
A – Ananda Margi Massacre, 1982: 17 Ananda Margis were killed in Kolkata
B – Bantala, 1990: 3 health officers were coming back from an immunization program, what happened?
C – Choto Angaria, 2001: 11 Trinamool workers killed …
