President’s address in Parliament: Hollow and full of platitudes, says Congress

Opposition pans President’s address

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. File photo: PTI

The Congress on Thursday said President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament was “uninspiring, hollow and full of platitudes”, and missed highlighting several pressing issues such as “unemployment and economic slowdown”.

Addressing the media, Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the President’s address was just a repetition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements as well as the executive decisions taken by the Union Cabinet after Mr. Modi was re-elected.

‘No mention of jobs’

“There is no reference whatsoever to the past commitments to the people of India in the Presidential Addresses by the government beginning with 2014,” Mr. Sharma said. “There is no mention of the jobs and unemployment which has touched... [the highest level] in the past 45 years.”

Mr. Sharma objected to the reference in Mr. Kovind’s address to the issue of “one nation, one election”, and said simultaneous elections were not feasible due to the country’s diversity.

Making a strong case for simultaneous Parliamentary and Assembly elections, the President had said “this was the need of the hour to accelerate development”.

The references in the address to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Narayana Guru from Kerala reflected the ruling party’s political ambition in these States, Mr. Chowdhury said.

Biju Janata Dal Lok Sabha member Bhartruhari Mahtab told The Hindu that the President should “focus on sabka vishwas to take along all sections and give cooperative federalism a epush”.

“President disappoints Nation. There is no action plan for building New India. Triple Talaq and One Nation, One Poll seems to be priority. Claims on growth is untrue,” CPI Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam tweeted.

“The President’s address tries to present a rosy picture but the claims made about development, growth and inclusiveness do not match the reality,” said CPI national secretary D. Raja. “Just look at the infant deaths in Bihar because of encephalitis and the claims about health infrastructure.”