Congress, like death, is never blamed: Modi

PM seeks Opposition help on GST, other bills

Displaying the same conciliatory approach which he had shown in the Lok Sabha last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought cooperation from MPs of the Rajya Sabha for passage of the GST and other legislation in the Upper House considering the “conducive atmosphere” that has prevailed in Parliament this session with cooperation from the Opposition. He, however, did not forget to attack the Congress and invoked the image of “death” to take pot-shots at the main Opposition party during his reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address, and said that the grand old party, like death, never gets any blame for whatever happens.

“Death has a blessing. It never gets blamed for anything. If somebody dies, the blame goes to reasons like cancer, age. Death itself is never blamed or defamed. Sometimes I feel that Congress also has this blessing... Congress never gets the blame,” he said.

During his hour-long reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Upper House, Mr Modi referred to some 300 amendments to the motion of thanks that were tabled. He unsuccessfully appealed to the parties to withdraw them and pass the motion unanimously.

During his speech, Mr Modi invoked the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s words to say that the Rajya Sabha is a chamber of ideas. “I hope we give importance to Pandit Nehru’s thinking and I hope all pending bills are passed in this session,” he said amid thumping of desks by the Treasury benches.

“We have been running Parliament this session smoothly. For this, I would thank the Opposition for carrying forward the President’s message. The impact of the President’s message is a matter of pride for us,” he added.

Pointing to the smooth functioning of the Houses this session, Mr Modi said the Lok Sabha sat till midnight on Tuesday (March 8) and the Rajya Sabha had a late sitting a couple of days ago. Mr Modi said that in the past session, out of 169 starred questions only seven were taken up while 42 hours were wasted because of disruptions. In the session before that, only six questions were taken up and 72 hours were lost in disruptions. “Now, ministers and officials are forced to make preparations for replying in Parliament. This is the strength of democracy. No words are enough to thank,” he said.

The Prime Minister told the Congress that it had been in power for long and that the NDA had got the opportunity now. “Development in fits and starts is not enough. Such an approach will leave us far behind. We need to move from incremental to quantum jump,” he said.

The Prime Minister pressed the need for cooperation between the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha considering the fact that many bills passed by the Lower House are stuck in the Upper House. “This is the Upper House. When great people move, others follow them... Whatever happens in this House (Rajya Sabha), its impact is felt on Lok Sabha, Assemblies and municipal corporations. So we should think how to create an atmosphere by which democracy can be strengthened,” he said.

Mr Modi mentioned GST and said there are many bills like this pending in the Rajya Sabha. “The people’s representatives (Lok Sabha members) have endorsed (bills) but representatives of the States (Rajya Sabha members) have not,” Mr Modi said. He then invoked India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to pitch for coordination between the two Houses.

He targeted the Congress for claiming ownership of the schemes of his government by quoting Indira Gandhi as saying, “There are two kinds of people in the world — one who works and another who takes credit for it... You try to belong to the first category because there is little competition in it. This has been said by Indiraji.”

While noting that all governments have made some contribution, the Prime Minister said, “If we work with the attitude of hota hai, chalta hai, it will take a long time for the development of a big country like India. We need to apply full force.”

The Prime Minister referred to the qualification criteria fixed in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Haryana for those contesting panchayat polls and said it has been approved by the Supreme Court but attempts are being made to give it “political colour”.

“There can be difference of opinion... Some say, ‘What about those who remained illiterate ’” he said. He then targeted the Congress, saying the reason for “illiteracy” was the policies followed by Congress governments after Independence. “We want to bring any qualitative change but it is being politicised,” Mr Modi said, daring Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad to give 33 per cent tickets to totally illiterate people to contest the upcoming Assembly elections to demonstrate the Congress’ commitment in this regard.

Seeming to mock Mr Azad, he said, “He got the recording done of what is lacking in Jan Dhan in Bhopal. Whatever the facts be, I appreciate the effort. It shows the Opposition is vigilant. Had you worked so hard while in government, there would have been no need for Modi to do Jan Dhan. You went out with a microscope to see where we were lacking. Had you earlier worked with binoculars, this work would not have been left for Modi,” he said.

Contending that his government’s focus is on good governance and transparency, the Prime Minister referred to the 2G spectrum scam during the UPA regime. “What was the climate before our government came All around corruption and nepotism had gripped the country. Right or wrong, the trust had gone down. The country’s image had taken a beating abroad as well,” he said, claiming that his government was “a policy-driven one”.

He pointed out the transparent process the government had employed in allocation of mines, spectrum and FM bandwidth as he reminded the Congress of the controversies surrounding the allocation of coal mines during the UPA government’s tenure. The PM said coal allocation has fetched over Rs 3 lakh crore, spectrum allocation around Rs 1 lakh crore, while the ongoing auction for six other minerals could fetch Rs 18,000 crore. Mr Modi also said that over 300 projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore, which had been pending at various levels, have been cleared by his government.

The PM, who has often been criticised by the Opposition for centralising all powers in his hands, spoke at length on how his government decentralised powers. He also made a veiled reference to alleged corruption in environmental clearances during the UPA’s tenure, but did not name the minister.

“Government has taken many steps towards decentralisation,” he said, disapproving of the tendency to concentrate all powers in Delhi. “We all know what all was talked about then. Everyone knows that,” he said, adding that his government also increased the rights of states in granting permissions for sand mining.

Wit, barbs, sarcasm and poetry marked the PM’s reply on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha. He concluded with renowned poet and lyricist Nida Fazli’s poem, Safar Me Dhoop toh Hogi.

He also made some other light references even though the sarcasm was not missing. Mr Modi, who had arrived in the House minutes before it commenced in the afternoon, walked up to the Opposition benches and mingled with them, exchanging pleasantries. He shook hands with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress veteran Karan Singh, who were sitting together, and had a brief chat with Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.