February 5, 2020
Saugata Roy speaks on the Motion of Thanks on President’s Address
FULL TRANSCRIPT
I am rising to speak to oppose the motion of thanks on the President’s address, but who will I speak to? These empty treasury benches? There is only one minister from Rajya Sabha and only one lady minister from Lok Sabha. All the others are half ministers. One Arjun Munda is there. All reserved people are there but the ministers have all fled. They have all gone for the Delhi elections which they are going to lose. Remember this Sir.
Sir, I speak in favour of the eight Amendments moved by me. Most of them relate to the nationwide agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the insecurity among the minority community over the Act. The Amendment specifically relates to protests especially by students and women as in Shaheen Bagh. Amendments also refer to the lowest GDP growth of 4.8% and the highest unemployment rate in 45 years of which there has been no mention in the address. They raised the matter of disinvestment of BPCL, LIC and 28 other PSUs to be disinvested. The whole address does not mention the crisis in the auto industry, real estate sector and the non-banking financial companies. So this is an empty address which does not address any of the pressing problems of the country.
Sir, before I proceed further, I strongly protest the way Mahatma Gandhi’s name has been used by these people in wrongly quoting him. In para 36 (of President’s address), they have referred to Mahatma Gandhi’s statement as if on Mahatma Gandhi’s advice they are bringing the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Please listen to what Mahatma Gandhi said and this, I can put the actual thing from Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Volume 96. Mahatma Gandhi said, “If we regard all the Muslims as fifth columnist, will not the Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan also be considered fifth columnist? That would not do.” He was referring to Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. “The Hindus and Sikhs staying there can come here by all means if they do not wish to continue staying there. In that case it is the first duty of the Indian Government to give them jobs and make their lives comfortable. But they cannot continue to stay there and become petty spies for us, not for Pakistanis.” This is what Gandhi ji said because he said that Indians should not stay there and be our spies. If they stay there, they should be part of this. And then he says about Muslims in the same writing: “The Muslims have said they would be loyal to India. Let us trust them with our hearts. Let us remember that truth alone triumphs, never untruth. Satyameva Jayate Nanritam.” So this government is going on untruth, not according to what Gandhi ji said.
So I demand that Gandhi ji’s name should be deleted from that para 36. They should not use the name of ‘pujia bapu ’ in pursuing their nefarious divisive political designs.
Next Sir, I want to mention that the country is in the biggest economic crisis in many years. Sir, you would understand that the Reserve Bank of India was made to change its forecast four times on the domestic growth rate. First it was 7.4 per cent, then in November it was made to 6.4 per cent, then in December they made it 5 per cent. The International Monetary Fund has slashed Indian 2019 growth rate forecast from 6.1 per cent to 4.8 per cent it projected in October last. Both the United Nations and the World Bank have cut India’s financial year 2020 growth forecast to 5.7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. It’s a dire state of affairs. Sir, five per cent growth rate production is the lowest in 14 years. Industrial growth rate is lowest in 14 years. Demand for electricity consumption is the lowest in the last 12 years. Private investment is lowest in the last 16 years and unemployment index is alarmingly high in the last 45 years. Where will the unemployed get their jobs? The government says, ‘go and riot’, that is how the unemployed will go.
In Davos this year at the World Economic Forum, Oxfam report says India’s richest 1 per cent hold more than four times the wealth held by 953 million people of India who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population where the total wealth of all Indian millionaires is more than a full year budget in our country. Just imagine, 63 billionaires are holding all the assets.
Sir, from billionaires who have made money here, 5,000 billionaires have escaped from India which includes Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi – all friends of this government. Yahan se paisa banata hai aur bhaag jata hai, yehi desh mein ho raha hai. Sir, Vijay
Mallya, Lalit Modi all are friends of Narendra Modi.
Sir, I want to mention, that ever since the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, there have been spontaneous protests all across the country, starting with Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam. In Assam, three people were killed in police firing. It has spread all over the country. In UP, the biggest state, more than 20 people have been killed in police firing. Students of Jamia Millia Islamia were lathi-charged by the police in the campus itself. The protets spread from Jamia to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and other universities, BHU, Delhi University. Universities, even IITs across the country joined the protest. The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act resulted in protests in several European cities and also in the Indian student community in the USA. Sir, women have joined the protests in large numbers. I will tell you Mr. Jaishankar how you have been a failure later. The women at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi have been in dharna for the past one and half months in this cold weather, in open air. All anger of the government is directed towards them. The Prime Minister makes them their target but they are braving the cold and protesting against the divisive agenda. There has been firing on them and attacks by BJP leaders and by pro-Hindu elements.
Sir, I want to explain my main protest against the CAA is because for the first time it introduces religion in matters of citizenship, also because it violates the Preamble and Article 14 of the Constitution.
Sir, state Assemblies of Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal have passed resolutions against the Act. The Chief Minister of West Bengal has been relentless in her fight and has walked in many many protests since mid-December 2019. Petitions have been filed in Supreme Court in the matter. Now, this Government speaks in many voices on the Act and proposed NRC. Home Minister asserted in this Lok Sabha that we shall have the NRC throughout the country, I have heard with my own ears. He said NRC would be done throughout the country. Then the Prime Minister said at Ramlila Maidan- “Oho, nobody talked to me about the NRC, we never discussed it”, and the Minister replied in Parliament yesterday that we have not decided to enact the NRC. My appeal to the Government is to speak with one voice. Scrap the NRC and CAA. Declare that there will be no NRC. Don’t stand on prestige. Shaheen Bagh, they are not our enemies, they are holding the national flag and singing the national anthem. Don’t take them as enemies, don’t shoot them, don’t shout at them. But I think only shooting and shouting is actually a conspiracy against the Prime Minister. Some people are out to destroy his image. The Minister who said –“Goli maro”, is he a friend of the Prime Minister? The BJP MP who said “ I will break or demolish all the unauthorised bustee in my constituency, is he a friend of the Prime Minister? His name is Parvesh Verma. And then the MP, who said Gandhi Ji’s freedom struggle was stage-managed, is he a friend of the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister’s image is being destroyed everyday and this conspiracy is being led by somebody called Mota-Bhai. He said, that no, there will be NRC when the Prime Minister says that there will be no NRC. So will the real Prime Minister please stand up and be counted and say who is saying the real thing. We want to know.
Sir, I want to say this thing. Mr Jaishankar this is for you. Our Prime Minister has assiduously tried to build up an image of an international star. We saw him swinging on a jhula with the Chinese President. You’re leading a solar alliance with Macron in France. He used to call Barack Obama, Barack, to which Mr Jaishankar must have contributed. And now he has gone to Houston and done ‘Howdy Modi’ with Trump who is under impeachment. Anyway, that’s their internal matter. Now what is the Prime Minister’s image coming through after all this build-up, after all this jhula. Today, we hear that his image has been destroyed. One Aatish Taseer wrote in the Time Magazine International in May. He is a well known journalist, I know him. And he has been made a persona non grata in India. Thank you Mr. Jayshankar. Taseer is a good novelist, read one of the books. This hardlining will not do in India, Mr. Jayshankar. And the other thing I want to say he did not believe in Aatish Taseer. He said no Modi cannot be “divider in chief”. Then what is happening now?
I thought that after his massive victory in the election, he would go for passing immediate reforms to make it easier to build homes, to create jobs in India. But, last six months, Modi and his Hanuman have scored to divide India. That is not once. Earlier they used to say Stand Up India, Shut Up India whatever. Have you heard of the term 5th columnist? We have a 5th columnist in our ranks. We would not really care.
Sir, what is happening now. Mr Jayshankar his divisive action on CAA spoiled his and India’s international image. In December, Mr Modi was forced to cancel a summit with the Japanese Prime Minister in Assam. Bangladesh, one of India’s closest allies, cancelled three ministerial visits to symbolize displeasure at the turn of events.
Again, the European Parliament is preparing a resolution note on Jammu & Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act opposing it. The European Parliament! Please stand up and contradict me.
Sir, listen to what billionaire – we are asking for capital finance – Jeff Bezoz openly criticised Modi for creating a Hindu National State in his speech in Davos at the World Economic Forum on January 26.
Sir, the world renowned magazine, most balanced magazine, The Economist, what did it write? In its issue of January 23, it headlined “India’s 200 million Muslims fear that Prime Minister is building a Hindu State”. This is not by me, not by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. This is by The Economist, the most respected journal. What did it say? That the largely fawning media in India have begun to speak out against Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister, for his apparent determination to transform India from a tolerant multi-religious place into a chauvinist Hindu state. That’s what you are doing. The Economist mentioned that the massacre of Muslims in the State of Gujarat in 2003 when Modi was Chief Minister. May be a hero to Hindu nationalists, Hindu hriday Samrat. Yeh sab mein nahi, Economist bol raha hai. Magazine ka copy de dunga.
Sir, by undermining the secular principles of the Constitution, Mr. Modi’s latest initiative threatens to do damage India’s democracy that could last for decades. They are also likely to lead to bloodshed. Sir, BJP, this Government has nothing else to say except head bashing Pakistan. Adhir (Choudhury) was right. He said, for Pakistan you roar like a lion, in front of China it becomes a whimper. And with such a divided India, will foreign investment come to this country to remove our unemployment? I will give an example. Mr. Jayshankar, you know this, Sir there is a company called KKR in US with financial ties with London. There are reports that KKR, with the biggest private equity fund in the world, will not consider India for their core investment. You can’t have a divided India and you can’t expect. Your own private investments are shrinking. One Ambani and one Adani will not be able to sustain this country. Sir, when Mr. Modi came to power again in 2019, we were in minority, sitting on this side looking at the great man how he will transform India. He has no new slogans, no Swachh Bharat, no Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojna, no Prime Minister Kisan Samman… only persecute and polarize. Musalman ko maro, desh ko bhag kar do, bibhajan. But Sir, I have not lost hope.
Lastly, again with a small quotation from a Hindi song from 1942 A Love Story, a girl from Shaheen Bagh sitting there with a hope that the Government will stop this, “Yeh safar bohot hai kathin, Magar na udas honge yeh humsafar, dil mein ummid toh nahi, nakam hi to hai, lambi hai gam ki sham, magar sham hi to hai.” It is only the evening. With that I say, I again oppose and I expected Mr. Modi to be here today, I spoke to the Speaker. But he has no time to attend Parliament. He only heard Barrack and he heard Donald and all these people. We are petty MPs, why should he come and waste his time listening to us. Dilip Ghosh, he became MP and he left his MLA seat. In the by-election, this MLA seat the BJP lost by 24,000 votes. It proves that the BJP does not exist and will not flourish in Bengal. We shall come, we shall come, we shall come.
