PM Modi 'in a perpetual state of denial' Kharge on President's speech

New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said after listening to the President's speech, it seems Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a state of perpetual denial, saying the people of India have rejected him in this election by not giving the BJP a majority.
He also said there was no mention of addressing the NEET issue, price hike, unemployment, violence in Manipur, terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, train accidents and plight of train passengers and atrocities committed against Dalits, Adivasis and minorities in BJP ruled states.
“Listening to the President's speech written by the Modi government, it seems that Modi ji is in a perpetual state of denial! The mandate was against him because the people of the country rejected his slogan of '400 plus' and kept the BJP away from the figure of 272. Modi ji is unable to accept this, which is why he claims nothing has changed , but the truth is that the people of the country had demanded a change,” Kharge said in a post on X.
“Overall, Modi ji is making a futile attempt to garner applause by forcing the Hon'ble President to read out lies, which the people of India have rejected in the 2024 elections,” he said referring to the President's speech in the joint sitting of both the Houses.
Kharge said he would give a detailed reply in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, but prima facie he found that “whitewashing will not work in the NEET scam”.
In the last five years, the Congress leader said, out of 66 recruitment exams conducted by the NTA, paper leaks and rigging took place in 12 exams, which affected over 75 lakh youth.
“The Modi government cannot shirk its responsibility by simply saying that 'we must rise above partisan politics'. The youth are demanding justice. The Union Education Minister will have to take responsibility. A out of every two young people in the country are unemployed and no concrete policy to eliminate unemployment has emerged from this discourse,” Kharge said.
“There is no mention of the top five issues even once in the entire speech,” he said, citing the devastating price rise as the first problem.
Kharge said prices of essential food items have shot up. Food inflation has been over 8.5 per cent for the last four months and prices of atta, dal, tomatoes, onions, milk – everything is sky high. Household savings are at a 50-year low. “But the word 'inflation' is missing from the entire discourse.”
Referring to the violence in Manipur, he said 221 people have lost their lives in the violence in Manipur which has been going on for 13 months, and 50,000 people are still homeless.
“The flames of violence have now spread to peaceful districts like Jiribam, while extortion and kidnappings have increased in Imphal Valley and other areas. But the BJP chief minister is still shamelessly clinging to his chair. There has been no concrete initiative for peace and normalcy,” the Congress president noted.
Speaking about the train accidents and the plight of train passengers, Kharge said the Modi government had not mentioned the West Bengal train accident in the President's written address.
“The government has not learnt any lessons even after the terrible Balasore train tragedy. The much-publicised Kavach protection is installed only on 2% of the tracks, while according to the NCRB, there were over 100,000 deaths due to train accidents between 2017 and 2021,” he said.
On the terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, Kharge said the Modi government has endangered our national security with 2,262 terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 10 years resulting in the death of 363 civilians and 596 soldiers.
“In recent years, there have been targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, but the Prime Minister is singing the false tune of 'Naya Kashmir,'' he said.
Referring to the increasing atrocities against Dalits, Adivasis and minorities in BJP-ruled states, Kharge said that during the elections, Prime Minister Modi's speeches repeatedly confirmed the fact that “the ideology of the BJP/RSS is only aimed at dividing the society”.
“In BJP-ruled states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, after the Modi government came to power, incidents of mob lynching, mobocracy, violence community and illegal justice bulldozed into the homes of the poor have increased unabated. The ruling party cannot maintain stoic silence on this issue,” Kharge said.
President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday underlined the government's unwavering faith in the Constitution and its efforts to integrate it into the “public consciousness”, while calling the state of emergency “the most important and darkest chapter of a direct attack” on the Constitution.
In her first speech to a joint sitting of both houses after the start of Prime Minister Modi's third term, she described the poll result as an endorsement of her government's policies while trashing attempts to undermine people's confidence in the electoral process, including EVMs – an apparent attack on opposition parties.
“It's like cutting off the branch we're all sitting on,” she said.
While some competitive exams were canceled and postponed due to suspected document leaks, Murmu said his government was committed to a fair investigation and ensuring punishment of the culprits.
In her 50-minute speech, the President highlighted the government's measures in a range of sectors ranging from the economy, defense and agriculture to the empowerment of different sections of society, and set out her priorities for her third term.