February 4, 2022
Pratima Mondal speaks during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Madam, I rise to speak on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.Painting a rosy picture of the dismal situation of the nation has been thetrait of the present Government since it came to power in 2014. Similar was the
scenario on 31st January, 2022 when the hon. Presi dent of India addressed the Parliament. Every sphere of failure has been covered with false promises and self-boasting of these promises being fulfilled.The claims of the Government are absolutely different from real ground reality. In the current scenario, India has been performing poorly across all sectors be it education or healthcare or even for that matter as basic and crucial as the agriculture sector. The hon. President mentioned in his speech that the Government ensured food security for every citizen of India but India is experiencing a serious level of hunger. Over 35 lakh children in the country are severely malnourished and more than 10 lakh are actually malnourished. Imagine the level when the entire population is taken into account. So, the claim that every Indian manages three meals a day is absolutely false. The hon. President mentioned that tele-law has benefitted 13 lakh people across the country by enabling legal advice but this is nowhere close to what is the actual need of the hour. More than 500 posts of judges are lying vacant across all 25 High Courts. Seventy-three thousand cases are pending in the Supreme Court alone, and taking all cases into account, a massive 44 million pending mark has been breached. Due to the unjust policies of your Government, 75 per cent inmates are under trial. Among them numerous might be innocent. Their lives are being destroyed. It is safe to assume that a large percentage of those dying in prison are not convicted of any offence. Despite the promises of article 21 that no person shall be deprived of his life or liberty except according to procedure established by law, the NCRB data reveals that the number of those dying in prison as they await their trials is only going up. Does an act like tele-law would be of no help? Instead of advertising, the Government should do what is actually required to be done.
The North-Eastern States found a place in the President’s sugar-coated speech but the reality is very different from what he spoke. The unthoughtful bogus laws of the Government have pushed numerous people into a state of
mental torture. In a recent case, Manik Das, a resident of Borkhal village of Assam committed suicide because of the Government. The man was fighting a case in the Foreigners Tribunal in order to prove his nationality as an Indian
despite the fact that his name was listed in NRC. He was still tagged as Bangladeshi while the rest of his family members were identified as Indians. This is just one case that I have highlighted. There are thousands of such cases and no one except the Government is to be blamed. The Government is tainted by the blood of farmers, citizens tagged as foreigners, migrant labourers, children, and the list is endless. The most distress fact among the current situation is that the Ruling Party has turned the temple of democracy into a mere ground of debating club where the Opposition puts forth their suggestions that go in vain. But it is now a known fact that the will of the Government will prevail in every domain without giving a heed to the minority. But then you must at least ensure that your will is rightful and reasonable.The policies of the Government are so inefficient that MGNREGA workers are still waiting for almost Rs. 3,360 crore in pending wages payments with the largest pending payments in West Bengal. Due to inadequate allocation, West Bengal is suffering a deficit of Rs. 752 crore to be exact, which is the highest among all States.I would take this opportunity to seriously demand the government to disburse the pending wages immediately. … (Interruptions). Madam, give me one minute. I am concluding.Coming to the education sector, again the situation of India is worrisome. The education policy does not make English a compulsory medium of education,
but is adamant to test their knowledge in government exams. Policies like these keep the urban-rural divide alive and make it a vote- seeking propaganda. I would like to conclude by saying that in a situation where the country is
suffering and people are looking up towards the Government with hope in their eyes, you are constructing a new Parliament building with the aim of providing “adhik suvidha” to the lawmakers that we do not want.
