Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit out at critics, mounting a strong defence of his government’s decisions in the last year, from demonetisation to surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC).
He was responding to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the joint session of Parliament that was passed in the Lower House.
The Opposition had moved 189 amendments to the Motion that were negated.
‘Not done in a hurry’
Declaring that his government was working for the poor and the downtrodden, Mr. Modi in his over 90-minute speech justified the timing of the demonetisation and denied that it had been done in a hurry. “To realise that you will have to study Modi,” he said. “Just notice the change in the discourse after our government came to power. Earlier it was about how much money was lost due to scams and now it is about how much black money has been recovered because of demonetisation.”
In a jibe at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, he referred to the earthquake in Uttarakhand on Monday night as the real thing, compared to what Mr. Gandhi had promised as a political earthquake over the Sahara-Birla diaries and allegations of graft against the Prime Minister.
“At last there is an earthquake. The Central government has offered all its help to the State government. I was thinking about the reasons why earthquakes occur. When somebody sees Sewa in scam [Mr. Gandhi had entered into an acronym war with the BJP on the word SCAM during the campaign in U.P.], even Mother Earth becomes sad and an earthquake follows,” he said.
The Opposition, he charged, had denied his government a chance in the Winter Session of Parliament to debate demonetisation, fearing that its own fire would be weakened.
“Some people have asked why was this [demonetisation] decision taken when the economy was doing well. It was the best time for demonetisation as the economy was strong. Had the economy been weak, then we could not have done it successfully,” he claimed.
He gave the example of a patient who has to undergo surgery. “Before subjecting a patient to surgery, a doctor checks all the parameters of the patient and only when they are fine, is the operation done.”
He said the decision had not been taken for any political mileage but for the benefit of the poor, unlike the Congress, who he said put its electoral prospects above dealing with the menace of black money, when the same remedy had been suggested to it.
He went into the reasons why there were many changes in the rules governing currency during the demonetisation period. “On the one side, the government was trying to flush out black money, on the other, were black marketers trying to outwit the government. by gaming system. Changes in rules kept us ahead of them,” he said.
The MGNREGA, he said, had in its 11-year history seen 1035 amendments in its rules, and that showed a dynamism of policy.
He referred to Congress Legislature Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s charge that “not even a dog” from the Sangh Parivar had given his/her life for the country. “Hum kutton waali paramapara main paley badhey nahin hain (we are not brought up in this sort of obsequious tradition),” he said, accusing the Congress of limiting democracy to a single dynasty. “It is due to Jan Shakti [people’s power] that a poor man’s son like me could become the Prime Minister of this country,” he said, while thanking the Congress, tongue-in-cheek, for its claim to have “preserved democracy” in India.
He pointed out that while the Congress was quick to credit former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi with ushering in the telecom revolution, when he (Prime Minister Modi) wanted more and more monetary transactions through the mobile phone, they declared it “unsafe.”
On the surgical strikes across the LoC, he said that any amount of praise heaped on the armed forces would not be enough. He told the Opposition that it needed to reflect on the kind of statements that had been made on the surgical strikes.
He concluded his speech by quoting Hindi poet Kaka Hathrasi on the benefits of introspection, with reference to the Opposition and its criticism of his government. “Antarpat main khojiye, chhipa hua hai khot, mil jaayegi aapko, bilkul satya report (look into your own self to ascertain your flaws, your inner voice will speak the truth),” he said.
