February 4, 2020
Trinamool’s SS Ray tears into BJP in his RS speech
Salient points of his reply to President’s speech
1. This is for the first time since its foundation in 1998 that the Trinamool Congress is bringing an amendment in the President’s speech. Why? Because we have been compelled to.He said many things, mainly a report card on the government; he has also not said many things.
2. The President has not mentioned that the RBI has had to, for the first time, change the economic forecast of the country three times. Domestic growth rate in February 2019 was put at 7.4%. Within two months (April), it was 7.2%. In November, it was again cut down to 6.14%. And then, in December, it was 5%. Similarly, the IMFhas also slashed growth rate from 6.1% to 4.8%, and the UN and World Bank too have cut India’s growth forecast. All this has not been mentioned by Rashtrapati ji.
3. A report says a female domestic worker will take 22,277 years to earn what a company CEO earns in one year. The report further says that the number of work hours that women and girls put in could be valued at Rs 93,000 crores. The President has not said anything about these inequalities.
There is a lot of jugglery in the statistics that the President has mentioned in a bid to present a rosy picture. But the replacement of the Planning Commission – a vision of Netaji and Pandit Nehru – by the Niti Ayog has brought about fake pictures of development and planning. This white elephant must go.
4. You ( BJP leadership) had said at the beginning that you would not allow the country to be sold. But now this government is selling everything. Let’s start with LIC – as much as Rs 30,000 crore of LIC funds have been tied up and lost in companies like Deccan Chronicle, EssarPort, Gammon, Videocon, Bhushan Power, GVK, Unitech. This money has been taken from the premiums that so many countrymen pay. All this, regrettably, is also not mentioned.
5. And this LIC was forced to buy shares of loss-making IDBI, amounting to Rs 21,024 crore. That too at a rate of 60-61 per share, which in 3 months was valued at 27 per share. Why was this allowed? And now, the government is selling its shares in both LIC & IDBI. From “Khleo Sarkar” it has become “Becho Sarkar”. Why am I stressing all this? Because crores of people in our country do life insurance with LIC, which now itself has no insurance. On a single day – 30 Jan, 2020 – LIC mopped up Rs 1,816 crore in new business premium. But now, without any consultation, the government is killing this golden goose.
6. There was reference to Gandhiji in the President’s speech in para 35. There were many good references. One was – in aftermath of partition, Gandhiji had said: “Hindus, Sikhs in Pakistan who do not want to stay there can come to India. It is the duty of Government of India to ensure normal life for them.” Many prominent leaders & parties supported this. But now, a ruling party MP is saying that Gandhiji’s freedom struggle & fight was all a drama.I am talking about paragraph 35 – this quote of Gandhi ji has also been distorted. No reference has been given. When, where and how did Gandhiji say this? There is no reference at all. But I have with me what Gandhiji had actually said. From the Collected Works of Gandhiji, it is known that on July 25, 1947, at a prayer meeting, Mahatma Gandhi had said: “There are Muslims, Parsis, Christians and other religious groups here. The assumption of the Hindus that India has now become the land of the Hindus is erroneous. India belongs to all who live here.” Please don’t use Gandhiji’s quotes selectively.
