Reaching out to the Opposition parties and seeking their cooperation in smooth conduct of the House, BJP working president JP Nadda on Monday asked the Opposition to realise that disruption affected them the most.
Initiating a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in Rajya Sabha, Nadda said, “We should agree to disagree in the House. But we should not disagree just for the sake of disagreement. I appeal. I need all of yours support. There were many disruption in the House in the past. This (disruption affects) the opposition the most.”
Outlining the direction of newly formed Modi 2.0, he told the House that this Government would work toward improving ease of living in the next five years to further reach out to the commoners in the country.
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi getting several international awards, he said: “These are all awards for India. Now India is not just a spectator but also a player in the international scene.”
Seconding the motion, BJP member Sampatiya Uikey lauded the NDA Government for working for women’s progress and improving their lives through various social sector schemes and policies during the past five years.
Speaking on the motion, SR Balasubramoniyan of the AIADMK suggested that elections which stretch too long should be avoided in the future, citing the example of the recently concluded general elections spread over seven phases across the country.
Referring to electronic voting machines (EVMs), he said, of late, there have a number of demonstrations by a political party that it can be tampered with on a booth level. Many dvanced economies have paper ballot system. We must also go back to the paper ballot system, he said.
On the suggestion of holding Lok Sabha and State polls simultaneously, Balasubra-moniyan said he does not know how feasible such a proposition is as reports so far suggest it is impractical.
Observing that funds which have to be disbursed to states must be given in time, he claimed that Central Government owes thousands of crores to Tamil Nadu which must be released at the earliest as otherwise the implementation of schemes would suffer.
Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said some of the schemes cited in the President’s address seem unachievable based on their proposed size and scale.
He alleged that fake encounters were taking place in the country on a large scale and FIRs are also not being lodged in such cases.
“If the country is safe then why our borders are shrinking,” Yadav said, asking if it is not true that China is doing something or the other on our borders regularly.
“You (Government) can always raise your eyebrows against Pakistan but what happens when it comes to China,” Yadav said.
He claimed that there was discrimination being practiced on the basis of religion and caste and alleged that some Samajwadi Party workers had been killed in Uttar Pradesh after the BJP-led Government came to power in the State.
Referring to the situation of jobs in the country, Yadav said the youth are disgruntled and disappointed.
On the Government’s ambitious plan to double farmers’ income by 2022, Ram Chandra Prasad Singh of the JD(U) said the Centre should clarify the definition of a farmer and quantify how much farmers will be able to earn.
He demanded that farmers beyond the age of 60 years also get pension, adding the Kisan Pension Yojana should be relooked at. Singh said the MNREGA scheme should also include agricultural works and suggested that a minimum income scheme be introduced for farmers.
Participating in the debate, Prasanna Acharya of BJD Said that this year the country is celebrating 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the asked the government to add ahimsha (non-violence) in the preambles of the Indian Constitution.
He also asked the government to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in this session to increase representation of the women in parliament.
“Although this time 78 women has been elected as members of parliament of the lower house but this is very small comparing to 47 per cent of total population,” Acharya said adding that India is ranking far below the other developing nation in female representation.
Raising concerns over the distress in the agricultural sector and number of farmers suicides in the country, Acharya also asked the government to raise the MSP (minimum support price) of the crops.
TK Rangarajan of CPI (M) raised the issue of the electoral bonds and said no country allows foreign funding in its elections.He said the journey of development had not started in 2014 and that “this country has a history of development.”
Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD said that “legislative majority of the government was not a moral majority”. According to him, the president address should also reflect the reality. Unemployment in this country is on the rise and agrarian crisis is looming and our Prime Minister is talking about India being a five trillion dollar economy, he said.
