June 12, 2014
Trinamool MP Sugata Bose wins hearts in Parliament with his maiden speech
Trinamool Congress MP Sugato Bose won thehearts of parliamentarians across party lines with his maiden speech in the LokSabha on Wednesday.
Team Trinamool is the Parliament took pridein the fact that Bose`s speech and that of one of the party MPs, Ratna De Nag(chairing the House), created a day of glory for the party.
A historian who has taught at USuniversities like Tufts and Harvard, Bose drew the government`s attention toissues like the need for a generous foreign policy towards neighbours,atrocities against dalits and concerns of minorities.
Most of his arguments were interspersedwith liberal quoting of Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam even as he duginto his knowledge of Indian history.
Bose warned the government not to confuse”uniformity with unity”and “majoritarianism with democracy”. “West Bengal willnever allow the language of citizenship to be used as a facade foranti-minority prejudice,” the Jadavpur MP said with reference to infiltrationand illegal migration.
Calling the President`s address a”recitation of pious platitudes”, he commended the government`s move to inviteSAARC countries and urged that regional problems not be allowed to impedeIndia's desire to play a global role. He said the biggest challenge for Indiaand China would be to peacefully manage their simultaneous rise even as hewelcomed engagement with Japan.
Bose, however, criticized the government`s”patronizing” aim to bring “the eastern region of the country on a par with thewestern region in terms of physical and social infrastructure”.
He argued that west and north had a lot tolearn from the east on “every conceivable index of human development and socialinfrastructure” like health, education and gender balance.
He also drew the Centre`s attention to hisstate`s growing debt burden and asked the government to devise policies toprovide relief as it was impeding the development agenda of the state.
