Congress: Narendra Modi’s speech ‘most dissapointing’

New Delhi: The Congress Party has termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech as “most disappointing”. Senior spokesman of the Congress, Anand Sharma, said, “The Prime Minister’s Independence Day address has been most disappointing. After three years, it was time for him to give an account of the failure of his government in fulfilling its promises to the people, especially the youth, farmers and weaker sections.”

The Congress leader also hit out at the Prime Minister for comparing the Gorakhpur tragedy, in which children lost their lives, to a natural calamity. “The PM has not shown sensitivity, and he has not actually registered the gravity of the situation. That a large number of children, infants have died because of callous neglect and he has just in a very trivial manner equated the Gorakhpur tragedy to the other natural calamities, he should have been careful,” Mr Sharma said. On the call of the Prime Minister to embrace Kashmiris, the Congress said that nobody stopped the Prime Minister from embracing Kashmiris in the first place and that he should talk to all sections and create a national consensus, as well as in Kashmir, to resolve the state’s issues.

On the PMs assertion that violence in the name of faith has no place in society, Mr Sharma wondered that who had stopped the PM from taking action against people who vitiate the atmosphere of peace.

He said, “Why has action not been taken against such individuals or organisations, when they have their government in the Centre and states? Why have they not been arrested.”

The Congress said that the Prime Minister should have “shown grace” and acknowledged the support of the Opposition parties in passing the GST. Mr Sharma added that it was Mr Modi, as the chief minister of Gujarat, who had vehemently opposed the GST. On the figures given by the Prime Minister regarding demonetisation, Mr Sharma said, “Why has this government not given an account of how much black money there is in the money that has come back to the RBI vaults.”