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Even your dog didn't sacrifice anything for India: Congress leader Kharge attacks BJP

Expectedly, the treasury benches were not happy.

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Mallikarjun Kharge
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Angry at being rebuked over Congress' supposed incompetence in the last 70 years, Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress legislative party in the Lok Sabha hit out at the BJP regime. He was quoted saying by ANI: "Desh ki ekta ke liye Gandhi ji ne kurbani di,Indra Ji ne kurbani di. Aapke ghar se kaun gaya? Ek kutta bhi nahi gaya!" (For the unity of the country, Mahatma Gandhi, former PM Indira Gandhi sacrificed so much. Who came from your house? Not even a single dog came.)

According to Kharge while speaking on the vote of thanks motion for President's speech, the government has made many tall promises like bullet trains but have failed to live up to them.  He also said that government has failed in NREGA.  Speaking about Congress' contribution in the nation building, Khadse was quoted as saying, "I think you brought Green Revolution. And White Revolution in your Gujarat also came in your time... (Verghese) Kurien was also born in these times -- everything happened in the last two and half years. We brought Green Revolution to feed the people, we brought White Revolution... You question what happened in 70 years, if nothing had been done, you would not have been alive, there would not have been democracy, the Constitution would not have been protected".

He also claimed that Modi coming from a poor family has become PM due to Congress, which ensured democracy is inclusive and reaches all.  But Kharge's most controversial statement was when he said that Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi have sacrificed for nation, but not even a dog has done so from BJP. This led to uproar from the treachury benches and the speaker asked the senior leader not to use such words. 

Opposition picked holes in various government decisions like demonetisation and surgical strikes as well as allocation of funds for MNREGA, agriculture sector and Scheduled Castes, saying it has failed on all fronts despite which it is trying to "fool" the people. 

Participating in a debate on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in the Lok Sabha, Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge repeatedly targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was present and said he should apologise to the nation for the demonetisation decision which caused a "lot of troubles" to all sections of the people. The government, on the other hand, asserted that the schemes and programmes initiated by it had been a success.


Minister Mahesh Sharma, who initiated the debate, said the entire nation had stood with Modi on the "bold" decision aimed at curbing black money, ending corruption and choking funds to terrorism. Kharge, while peppering his 90-minute speech with witty digs at the Prime Minister and BJP, said the government was misleading the countrymen by claiming that the nation is progressing fast. "You can fool some of the people for some time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time," he said quoting Abraham Lincoln and added, "There is failure on all fronts. So what are you talking about?" 

Referring to the decisions on demonetisation, digitalisation and surgical strikes and programmes for farmers, backward castes, employment creation, Swacch Bharat and 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao', Kharge asked, "Is the government running properly? Or is just a jumla (slogan)?" Taking a dig at Modi, he said, "woh bhashan mein tez hain, bolne mein tez hain, par bhashan se pet nahi bharta (he is great in delivering speeches but speeches do not feed people)."

Talking about demonetisation, Kharge said, "All the economists have said the decision to ban notes was bad. What steps did the government take before rolling out the plan?" Kharge, who insisted that his party was willing to have a debate on demonetisation even during the last Winter session of Parliament which was a washout, said the decision to scrap old notes had hit all sections, particularly farmers and the unorganised sector.


He said 125 people lost their lives in the aftermath of this decision. "The Prime Minister did not even say anything on this. The least he should have done was to introduce a resolution to condole the deaths or should have said that he wants to apologise to the people due to the hardships caused to them," Kharge said in his poetry laden speech, which lasted for nearly one-and-half hour. 

 

Kharge claimed that the decision to declare old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 as null and void was taken by the Prime Minister alone, without taking into confidence even taking his cabinet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian. The Congress leader also claimed that the victims of Kanpur railway accident, which claimed lives of two and left over 40 injured in December last year, were paid in the form of old notes. "This government did not take anybody into confidence.
That is why this failed," he said. 

"It all happened in 24 hours -- RBI meeting, Cabinet meeting and the Prime Minister's announcement," he said, referring to the demonetisation decision of November 8 last year.
"At night (of November 8), the Prime Minister declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 are just a piece of paper which has no value. There was panic among people. Imagine what message it would have sent to the people and foreign countries," he said.
He suggested that the demonetisation decision was thrust upon the RBI, saying the central bank did what it was told by the government.

He claimed that only two of 10 Directors of RBI were present at a meeting which decided in favour of demonetisation. At this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar raised a point of order.

He said Kharge had made "baseless allegations" as he has not referred to any documents and not substantiated anything.
"He (Kharge) was allowed to speak on all those things.  Everything should be expunged. He should speak with authenticated documents and not mislead the House," he said. Kharge responded by quipping while addressing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan: "Unka kaam hi mislead karna hai. Mai udhar dekhta bhi nahi. Unko dekhna paap hai, unko sunna paap hai. Sirf apko dekhna theek hai (It is their task to mislead. I do even look at them. It is a sin to look at them or listen to them. Only looking at you is fine)." 

Questioning what the government had achieved by abruptly removing 86.5 per cent of currency in circulation, Kharge said economists have opined that there were better ways to end black money.
"In no other country, there would be a situation where you can't access your own money in banks.... People are still facing trouble. Farmers, small traders, construction workers, all are affected," the Congress leader said.
He said the government should have made proper preparations before taking the demonetisation decision by making the replacement currency available.
"You (government) did it without any preparation. The economic situation has been affected and growth has been hurt.
It is not me who is saying so but big economists are saying so," he said.


He referred to the government's contention that demonetisation was to curb black money, fake currency, corruption and terror funding. "Did black money end? Did fake currency come out?... I want to ask how much black money has been unearthed. He also alleged that the note-ban decision was "leaked" to people and industrialists close to the government and BJP leaders bought vast tracts of land before the decision was announced.

With inputs from agencies 

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