Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Thursday invited the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament to help the government pass key laws and also implored them to help in the "improvement" of his government with their long years of experience. The PM's rare olive branch to the Opposition was followed by potshots at Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.
In a 75-minute speech on the motion of thanks for the President's address in the Lok Sabha, the PM quoted from the speeches of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to attack the Congress and Left parties for disrupting proceedings of the two Houses. Not once did Modi refer to Rahul Gandhi by name but said that one should listen to one's elders.
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While the Trinamool Congress and Biju Janata Dal have been ambivalent in their opposition to the government, the PM took jibes at their more vociferous members like Saugata Roy and Tathagata Satapathy. The attacks on the Congress made party members repeatedly shout out their protests.
The PM stood up to speak a little after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the Aadhaar Bill. Opposition members objected to the government's intent to push it as a money Bill, while Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked them to put forth their objections at the time the House took up the Bill for discussion and passage.
Modi asked the Opposition to support the Aadhaar Bill that seeks to weed out middlemen and ensure participation of the common man in implementation of government schemes. He also asked the Opposition to support the passage of the Waterways Bill, Whistleblowers Protection Bill, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitution Amendment Bill, the Consumer Protection Bill and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. On the GST, Modi said, "It is yours' (Congress'), still it is being stopped."
In a comment directed at Rahul Gandhi, the PM said some people "age but don't mature". He didn't answer any of Rahul Gandhi's criticism of his government on the JNU row, the government's Pakistan policy or the half-truths on the Naga accord. The PM said the real reason for constant disruptions was not because the Congress was upset with the government, but due to the "inferiority complex" of its leadership. He said disruptions meant that the more capable parliamentarians were not being allowed to speak lest they outshone others. He disapproved of Rahul Gandhi' ridicule of the Make in India policy of the government. The PM quoted former Indira Gandhi to claim that some people, including intellectuals, were intent on painting India as a country perennially holding a begging bowl.
On Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Modi government's flip-flop on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the PM listed seven similar schemes both at the Centre and the states since the 1970s to establish how the UPA government was not the originator of the idea. The PM said he was steadfast in his belief that the MGNREGA had lacunae, which his government had tried to plug. He said the focus of the MGNREGA would be to help with irrigation and water supply. The PM also berated Rahul Gandhi for having torn at a press conference an Ordinance passed by the Cabinet headed by Manmohan Singh, and which included such senior Congress leaders as A K Antony and Sharad Pawar.
Modi ended his speech on a conciliatory note. He appealed to all to rise above scoring points, as this only made the bureaucracy rejoice. He said politicians come and go every five years, but bureaucrats remain. Modi said there have been a surfeit of programmes and policies, both by Congress as well as BJP-led governments. "But even your governments have had to suffer non-implementation of policies," he said.
Modi said a country like India could not be left at the mercy of the bureaucracy. "This government also needs improvement, which cannot happen without your help. I am new, you are experienced. I need the benefit of your experience. Governments will come and go. Let us work shoulder to shoulder," he said. The PM also claimed his was a performing government, pointing at the increased pace of laying railway tracks, construction of toilets in rural areas, and electrifying 18,000 villages.
To Rahul's criticism that his ministers and MPs were scared to speak out, Modi recounted an incident about Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev to point out that he was a democrat who tolerated dissent.
Targeting Rahul's record as MP
The PM said MPs had increasingly failed to use the instrument of asking questions in Parliament to make the bureaucracy accountable. He said officers no longer feared questions from MPs. While the reference was general, sources said it was directed at Rahul Gandhi, who had not asked a single question in the current Lok Sabha. The average for other MPs is 112 questions.
