June 24, 2019
Saugata Roy speaks on 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. I oppose the Motion of Thanks and support the amendments moved by us. Before I start my speech I shall quote from Tulsidas because Pratam Sarangi has quoted Tulsidas extensively. Tulsidas said, Tulsi kabhu na tyajiye apni kul ka riti, layek ho so kijiye bibah byadh aur priti. Pratap Sarangi Ji Tulsi ka anushasan nahi mana.
Many people ask me why AITC is not attending the dinner called by the Prime Minister and why we are not attending the meeting on “one nation one election”. Toh main fir Tulsidas se quote karunga, “awathi har se nehi, nainan nehi saneha, tulsi tatha na jaiye, kanchan barose neha.”
Toh Home Minister agar humein advisory bhejte rahe aur asha karein ki hum unki meeting mein jayenge, yeh kabhi nahi hoga. Advisory bhejna bandh karein, hum log fir sahayog ke liye taiyar hain. Yeh advisory bhejna federalism ke khilaf hain and they are violationg the principle of cooperative federalism.
Madam, yeh sarkar hukumat mein aayi hain. We have to obey that for 5 years; constitutionally it is acceptable. But, there is a doubt about the results of the election. How come the BJP President, one day before the results were out, said “we shall get 300 seats” and his party got 303 seats? How come immediately after the Lok Sabha election in Karnataka the BJP party was trounced in the local body election? There is a doubt that the EVMs have been manipulated. That is why we want these EVMS to be jettisoned and bring back the ballot paper as it has been done in many countries.
Madam, I oppose voting via EVM. I along with party demands that ballot paper should be brought back. EVM meh fraud aur manipulation hua hai. Madam, next I want to say what is the condition of the country now. Does the President’s speech reflect the condition of the country ? No. It just gives some biased platitudes and repeats all the programs of the government like Beti Bachao Beti Padao, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, RERA, IBC, Bharatmala, Sagar Mala etc.
Lekin desh ke asal stithi ke bare mein yeh President’s address mein kuch nahi tha. Demonetisation, jisse lakhon logo ka kaam gaya uske baare meh kuch mention hi nahi tha. Farmers’ suicide ke bare mein kuch nahi tha. Madam, Rafael deal mein private partner ko diya gaya jo sakh hai logo ko uske baare meh kuch mention nahi kiya gaya. This government is capturing the media; NDTV is being raided. Nothing of this is mentioned in the President’s speech. Freedom is curtailed in this country.
Madam, institutions are been weakened. There is a cultivation of hate in this country because rationalists are being killed by people linked to extreme Hindu organisation. Kashmir has been mishandled; this year 88 civilians died there. And nothing of this was mentioned in President’s address.
The main things are jobs, unemployment rate is highest in 45 years. The Prime Minister had promised two crore jobs per year and that had proved to be false. More unemployment has been created because the PM has announced that 30 fields had to be sold and this is the most antinational step. BSNL, which employs 45,000 employees, is on the verge of closure. People are not getting their monthly salary for the last six months. Jet Airways, which employed 20,000 employees, is now closed. But the President fails to address all of this.
Madam, this book is a declaration of a divisive agenda. Do you know what the Time Magazine said about the Prime Minister? In its 20th May 2019 issue, our PM was called “India’s Divider In-Chief”. It said, “not only Modi’s electoral miracle failed to make it alive but also he has created an atmosphere of poisonous religious nationalism in India.” Ye kya hai? Prime Minister – poisonous religious nationalism? Ye unhone kiya hai aur wohi divisive agenda woh log function kar rahe hain. Hum toh dekh rahe hain… we are seeing in West Bengal.
The Prime Minister went 18 times to West Bengal during elections. He even came to my constituency where the BJP was defeated. His party people are creating mayhem in West Bengal, burning our offices, killing our people, killing TMC workers. They have let loose violence. President does not mention this and Home Minister sends us advisory. That is his temerity, his arrogance.
The US State Department, in its annual 2018 International Religious Freedom Report, said mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018.
“Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims, continued throughout the year in the hands of cow vigilantes,” the US report said.
There are several attempts to undermine minority institutions and change the names of the cities that reminded of one of the pluralistic nature of India. Allhabad ko achanak badal diya- Prayagraj, hamara itihas nahi rahega. BJP naya itihas banayega, kyun?
The President’s speech mentions Mahatma Gandhi’s name. Do you know, what was his political ideology? Inclusive Socialism. Now, BJP’s policy is “integral humanism” of Deendayal Upadhay. Even from its policy it has eliminated Mahatma Gandhi. They have mentioned in the paragraph 97- Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Netaji, Dr Ambedkar, Quit India Movement but not one mention of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The President does not know the name of Jawaharlal Nehru? Can he not mention the name of first Prime Minister?
Madam, the whole effort is to communalise and divide the country. The President’s Address should not have not included divisive policy. What are they doing? In paragraph 45 they are talking of Triple Talaq. They are the sole proprietary of the welfare of muslim women? They want to send people who give talaq to jail. How can you convert a civil offence to a criminal offence? Whole muslim community is opposed to it. Lekin woh karenge kyun ki samaj ko bibhajan karna hai.
Paragraph 89 – National Register of Citizens. In Assam, names of 40 lakh Bengalis, out of which 22 lakh are Hindus, have been put out off register. They may lose their citizenship. And the Home Minister said he will introduce the NRC in Bengal. We shall resist it, tooth and nail, we shall never allow the National Register of Citizenship in Bengal. They say they will pass they Citizenship Bill; they tried last time also. We did not let them pass the Citizen Amendment Law. Again the Home Minister says he will bring it; we will oppose the Citizen Amendment Act tooth and nail.
Again, they say ‘One Nation, One Election’. Most political parties are opposed to it. It’s an effort to staright jacket the Indian Political system into one roof. We shall not let it happen. One Nation One Poll is not acceptable to us.
Madam, yeh sarkar logon ka bibhajan karna chahti hai. Desh ka jo buniyadi samasya hai, iske bare mein woh nahi boltey hai. Aam aadmi ka naukri kahaan hai? Kisan khudkhushi kar raha hai, adha desh sukha mein pirit hai. Public sector bandh hote ja raha hai. Aur sabse bada baat – the economy is in doldrums. This government talks big. The rate of growth has fallen to 5.8%, this is the lowest in many years and the government has no policy on how to improve the rate of growth, which will create more jobs. It has no policy at all. Madam, the government will not do that. This is a question about priority and lack of legislative clarity. It has only decisive agenda.
They did not mention about encephalitis in Bihar which has already killed 150 children. What is the government talking about when the children are dying? They are not talking about the allegations of corruption in the Rafeal deal where Rs 30,000 crore have been given to an offset partner; his name is some Ambani. Today the government has brought the draconian Aadhaar; it is a failed attempt to deny citizens the fundamental right to privacy.
Madam, this is not the way the country works. This government is in power, even though through the doubtful use of the manipulation of the EVMs. But still, the government has to carry different sections. Sab ko saath lekar chalna hain. Inka koshish yeh nahin hain. Inka koshish kaval hain kaise logon ko Hindu-Musalman, Shamshan-kabristaan is mein baanta jaaye.
Rashtrapati ke bhasan ke samarthan mein inhone quote kiya hai. Main quote karta hoon Rabindranath Tagore ko.
এসো হে আর্য, এসো অনার্য, হিন্দু–মুসলমান।
এসো এসো আজ তুমি ইংরাজ, এসো এসো খৃস্টান।
এসো ব্রাহ্মণ, শুচি করি মন ধরো হাত সবাকার।
এসো হে পতিত, হোক অপনীত সব অপমানভার।
মার অভিষেকে এসো এসো ত্বরা, মঙ্গলঘট হয় নি যে ভরা
সবার–পরশে–পবিত্র–করা তীর্থনীরে—
আজি ভারতের মহামানবের সাগরতীরে॥
He is calling Aryans Hindus, Muslims, Christians, English. Come for the coronation of the Mother, to fill the Holy vessel.
These people are violating the basic spirit of the Constitution. The word ‘secularism’ does not find a mention In the Presidential speech. Neither does Jawaharlal Nehru. That is because of RSS. The RSS did not take part in the freedom movement. They did not unfurl the Indian tricolour on January 26 for 30 years. They did not take part in the Quit India Movement in 1942. This organisation was banned after Gandhiji’s assassination. Aaj main bahut dukhi hoon ki RSS ka ek bhootproorva pracharak aaj desh ke Pradhan Mantri hain.
He has failed to rope in our neighbours. Even Maldives does not listen to us nowadays. The government is handling every issue wrongly. I sound a note of warning. You may have come to power by manipulation of EVMs. But, the more you clamp down on the people, on their freedom, the more your people will shoot the rationalists, the more you create mayhem, the more the people will resist. As Tagore had said, “ওদের বাঁধন যতই শক্ত হবে ততই বাঁধন টুটবে, ওদের যতই আঁখি রক্ত হবে মোদের আঁখি ফুটবে” (the tighter you tie the knots, the thread will become loose. The more you show us your bloodshot eyes, our eyes will open). People will resist you with all the might.
Even if people go over to BJP, even if they create violence in Bengal, we shall resist, to revive secularism. We shall all stand together over the march of the communal, divisive, partisan, sectarian party in this country of Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Thank you.
