February 10, 2024
Saket Gokhale’s speech in the Rajya Sabha during the Short Duration Discussion on the ‘White Paper on the Indian Economy’
Thank you very much, Sir. Today is my maiden speech in this august House and I wish to thank my leaders, Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee and my party, Trinamool Congress for giving me this opportunity. Yes, Sir. It is my maiden speech. Thank you, Sir. Sir, I want to start with a short story today by the famous Danish writer, Hans Christien Andersen. The story goes that there was once a very famous emperor who was extremely self-obsessed with himself and his clothes. He had no interest in his kingdom or in the welfare of his people. All that the emperor did every day was, sit in his wardrobe while the Ministers around him kept telling him how beautiful his clothes were and how great he was. One day, two cheats came to his kingdom, pretending to be tailors, and offered to make new clothes for the emperor, because he loved new clothes. The tailors promised to make an exquisite suit for the king with special properties. The new suit, they said, would be the finest cloth that the emperor had ever worn. But there was one special feature. They said that the suit was only for the great emperor and the suit would be invisible to anybody who is a dishonest person. Several Ministers of the emperor went to the fake tailors while they were making the suit. The Ministers, obviously, could not see the suit. But they blamed themselves for that because they were afraid that they might be branded dishonest if they could not see the suit. On the day of the great procession, the emperor went on to try the new clothes. He himself could not see those clothes but, obviously, he did not want to claim that he was dishonest. So, he went along with it. The emperor then put on his new suit and started a procession through the city. People across the kingdom had heard about the emperor’s new clothes which were so special that they would be visible only to those who were honest. So, out of fear, the people started screaming, “Oh, so beautiful clothes, so lovely clothes”, because nobody wanted to be seen as dishonest or anti-national. Then, suddenly, one innocent child screamed from the audience, “What is wrong with all of you? The emperor is naked.” This is precisely what the claims in this White Paper on the economy are. They are the emperor’s invisible clothes. My hon. Minister’s colleagues here will spend hours talking about how beautiful these invisible clothes of a great emperor are. But the truth of our economy as shown in this White Paper is that the emperor is naked. But we all have to admit one thing. This White Paper is magical. It is magical because after reading this White Paper, I realise that something called demonetisation never happened! I remember, a few years ago, the Prime Minister showed upon our TV screens one fine evening and said that in the next two-three hours, 60-70 per cent of our currency will be demonetized. I remember what my leader, Mamata Banerjee, said at that point of time. She is not an economist, but she is connected with the hardships of the people on the ground. She said that demonetization will be a disaster. And that proved to be right. People scrambled to ATMs for cash. People queued up for hours. Hundreds of people died. ATMs had not even been configured for the new notes. They had to recalibrate all the ATMs in the country. That is how disastrously planned this move was. Then the Prime Minister came up with a genius idea that I will scrap Rs.1,000 notes, but I will bring in Rs.2,000 notes. The idea was that people are stuffing money in the mattresses, so let me demonetise Rs.1,000 notes and let me make it easier for them by bringing Rs.2,000 notes. Only Prime Minister Modi has that kind of vision and genius. After that, the Prime Minister went to Japan and laughingly in front of a crowd, he said, “घर मेंशादी है, लेिकन पैसेनहीं हैं, हा-हा-हा!” That was the level of cruelty and contempt shown for the poor people of India. What happened after demonetisation? Ninety-nine per cent of the cash came back into the economy which is the reason why they have not mentioned demonetisation in this White Paper because they know that it was the biggest glaring failure of the Modi Government. There is also the issue of constantly shifting goalposts. This White Paper is about 2004 to 2014. When Prime Minister Modi got elected, he said, “I am going to give XYZ by 2018.” Then the hon. Leader of the House, Shri Piyush Goyal, would correct that and said that this would happen by 2020. Then Prime Minister Modi said, “Two crore jobs per year; Housing for all; and Doubling of farmers’ income by 2022.” Then that deadline became 2024. But now it has become amazing. Now there are only two things. We will talk about a White Paper from 2004 to 2014 or we will talk about 2047. If you want something, you are not going to talk about the present. If you want something, wait for 23 years till 2047. This is what they did with the Women’s Reservation Bill. They did not tell the women of India that until the Census and delimitation happens, it won’t be implemented and they have to wait for another nine years. It is not going to happen today. But they are promising to the people during the election campaign. What is amazing is this. I was watching the Mood of the Nation Survey on TV yesterday. It said that over 70 per cent of the people surveyed are worried about unemployment. How many times does the word ‘unemployment’ figure in this White Paper? Zero. There is no mention of ‘unemployment’. This is very funny because Prime Minister Modi had promised two crore jobs per year. He said that in his own statement. It is on the record. What is the reality? In the last five years, 2.7 crore jobs have allegedly been created. Prime Minister Modi has met only 35 per cent of his promised target. Therefore, ‘unemployment’ is not mentioned in this socalled White Paper. Prime Minister Modi did try to cover up for it. He went to a TV channel and said, “People selling pakodas outside the channel office, they are also employees.” But this White Paper does not even tell us how many people have started selling pakodas in the last five years. That is the dismal state of unemployment that they can’t even tell us how many new pakoda sellers they have created. Sir, price rise is hurting everybody today. What is the reality? Increasing prices of fuel and food items are breaking the back of the poor and the middle class. The people of India have to use up their savings every month just to pay their bills. One statistics or figure as of last year is that the household savings of India are the lowest that they have been in the last fifty years. Then comes my favourite part. Prime Minister Modi said in 2015 that black money will be brought back from foreign countries which will be equivalent to 15 lakh rupees in everybody’s bank account. Then later Mr. Amit Shah came and taught us a new word that it is just an election jumla. So a new word was added to our dictionary that this was a jumla. Prime Minister Modi also claimed categorically that black money brought from foreign countries would be distributed to the salaried class and those who honestly pay taxes. I want to ask through you, Sir, to the citizens of India how many honest taxpaying citizens have got even one rupee of that black money in their accounts in the last ten years. In fact, Rs.10.57 lakh crore have been waived. A big chunk of these loans belonged to fraud businessmen, who were once very happy with Prime Minister Modi. These frauds took up loans, defaulted and left the country. What is more shocking is that Central agencies like the CBI and the ED have not been able to bring either these people back or these funds. But these agencies are busy going after opposition leaders. Ninety-five per cent of the cases against politicians by the ED are against opposition politicians. That leaves 5 per cent. You know who these five per cent are. They are the ones who went into the BJP’s washing machine and all the cases against them have stopped. There is not a single BJP leader being investigated for corruption. Sir, I would now conclude. Since this Government has brought out a White Paper on the Indian Economy, through you, I have a few suggestions for the Government. How about a White Paper on women safety? The cover can be decorated with the photo of a famous non-wrestling Lok Sabha Member from their Party. How about a White Paper on the cases of rising hate speech and communal attacks on minorities? This White Paper can also have a cover with a photo of one of their Lok Sabha Members. How about a White Paper on the destruction of Parliament and compromising on its security? Here, you have two options. We can have the White Paper with a picture of 146 respected Members who dared to question the Home Minister or we can have one of their Lok Sabha Member who has a habit of inviting everybody, all and sundry, to the Parliament. On behalf of my Party, Trinamool Congress, we reject this White Paper, which not only insults the collective intelligence of Parliament but also seeks to *the people of India. I have about a minute left in the allotted time for my maiden speech. I am also aware that since it is my maiden speech, the House gracefully indulges in and allows me to speak. But ‘no’, Sir; as a proud and self-respecting Member from a proud and selfrespecting party of a proud and self-respecting leader, I refuse to further participate in this charade and indulge in the … of this Government. With the promise that the people of India will give BJP the befitting answer to the …. in this White Paper and to the Modi Government in the upcoming elections, I and my Party, the Trinamool Congress, will now walk out of the House in protest. Thank you, Sir.
