Congress calls Modi’s Independence Day speech ‘hollow’

• Addressing the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 72nd Independence Day, his fifth speech after the NDA came to power in 2014, Modi also announced permanent commissioning of women in the armed forces and a plan to send Indian astronauts into space by 2022.
• “India was earlier a sleeping elephant which has woken up now and started running,” said Modi, who was wearing a saffron-and-red Rajasthani-style turban.
• On Kashmir, the Prime Minister said, “We will move forward by embracing people and not by bullet and abuse.”
• One of the big announcements Modi made was the rollout of the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme, described as the world’s largest health care measure, on September 25, the birth anniversary of BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay. He said the scheme would initially cover nearly 50 crore people from 10 crore families.
• The Prime Minister said that by 2022 India would send a “son or daughter” to the space with the national flag in hand.
• Modi also vowed not to spare corrupt and black money hoarders, saying efforts of his government had freed corridors of power from brokers, enhanced the number of taxpayers and saved Rs 90,000 crore by eliminating bogus beneficiaries of many schemes.

“Can’t handle tricolour, let alone nation,”  Congress on Shah

The Congress’ jibe came after Shah fumbled while hoisting the national flag at the BJP headquarters here. The Tricolour slipped down the pole to the ground as soon as Shah pulled the string.

“How could those who cannot handle the national flag would handle the nation? If those who derided the tricolour for over 50 years had not done so, things would not have come to such a pass,” the Congress party tweeted as it shared the video of the fumble.

“Those who give certificates of patriotism to others are oblivious of the etiquette of the national anthem,” it added.

Many other Twitter users also shared the same video with sarcastic comments.

The Congress Party of India said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have spoken “the truth” in the “last” Independence Day address of his term instead of making a “hollow” speech and urged him to accept party chief Rahul Gandhi’s challenge of a debate on issues such as corruption, mob lynching and Chinese incursions.

In his Independence Day speech that the opposition is calling as the last one with India going for general election next year Modi presented a picture of rising India under his government, contrasting it with what he termed was “policy paralysis” under the UPA.

Congress’s communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala alleged that the Prime Minister in his address did not utter a single word that was “meaningful” to the common man. Surjewala claimed that people were now tired of the “fake achche din” promised by the BJP and were waiting for “sachche din (days of truth) when he departs as the Prime Minister of the country.

In 2013, Modi had created a Red Fort-like replica in Chhattisgarh and from there he had challenged then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to an open debate on the issues of corruption, China and Pakistan threatening the territorial integrity of India, falling rupee and failing economy, rampant unemployment as also discrimination vis-a-vis farmers and India’s women, Surjewala said.

“We ask you Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, five years after you have taken over as Prime Minister, are you ready for a debate on these very issues with Congress president Rahul Gandhi.Will you debate on the issue of corruption and Rafale and Vyapam and other corruption scams of your government for you did not utter a single word from the precincts of the Red Fort on corruption,” he told reporters at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.

“Prime Minister did not utter a word, whether on Bihar or Unnao or any other rape incident that happened in the country,” Surjewal claimed, referring to the shelter home case of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district and the rape case in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao involving a BJP MLA. “Will you today debate on the failing economy and falling rupee, for the rupee has hit a new low that is 70 and the trade deficit has gone over USD 18 billion. Will you today debate as to the manner in which China has occupied Doklam, they are intruding into Ladakh and has been engulfing India from all sides,” the Congress spokesperson alleged.

He also urged the prime minister to debate on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and “rampant unemployment” in the country.The last speech of Modi’s tenure as Prime Minister has proved to be “hollow” because neither he made a mention of corruption in the Rafale deal nor did he say a word about the Vyapam or the PDS scams.“He also did not talk about incursions by China in Doklam and other places. He also did not speak about the environment of hate in the country, on the conspiracy of making brothers fight and how people are killing each other, on how hate is being propagated on the basis of religion, caste, regionalism, colour, dress and food,” he said.

he Congress leader also said there was a need to fight a second struggle for independence—independence from discrimination, independence from unemployment, independence from poverty, independence from lack of opportunities and from empty rhetoric and promises.

Asked about the remarks of Modi that India’s stature rose on the world stage in the last four years, he said the prime minister should not undermine India’s contribution in the last 70 years. India was always a power and it did not happen in the last four years, he said, adding that the prime minister’s statement of this nature was “myopic, parochial and uncalled for” on a day like the Independence Day. “Modi makes promises to break them. His and his party’s path has been one of spreading hate and divisiveness,” Surjewala said.