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No confidence motion debate: Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi – the charges and the replies

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No confidence motion debate: Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi – the charges and the replies

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi got up to reply to the debate on no confidence motion on Friday – at the tactically chosen prime time for TV, 9 pm – he made the most of it.

Taking more than an hour and a half to respond to charges made by the opposition, he used his oratorical skills to launch a no-hold-barred attack, choosing Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi as the main target. There was no question that he scored in rhetoric, tearing them apart. While Rahul had spoken of love, Modi talked about the Congress president’s arrogance and greed for power and virtually rejected the gesture of the hug Rahul gave him.

The outcome of the vote itself was a foregone conclusion: 325 MPs stood with Modi government against the motion, those in favour were 126. However, Modi either failed to reply to any of the substantive points raised by Rahul Gandhi or his replies turned out to be diversionary.

Reacting, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in a tweet: “‏Bizarre! For the first time in the history of no-confidence motions has the PM’s reply been so disconnected with reality. What he is saying has nothing to do with issues raised by the Opposition and his own allies.”

A fact checker Dhruv Rathee commented: “Hardly any direct questions were answered, 80% of the speech was mocking RG and making jokes.”

The bulk of PM Modi’s reply to the motion focused on attacking previous Congress regimes. He attacked the opposition for being “pessimistic” and “misleading the public” through false propaganda. He this was because the opposition “has no confidence in itself”.

To the opposition’s charge that minority groups are at the receiving end of Hindutva violence, he spoke of his government’s achievement in electrifying the last 18,000 villages (out of a total of more than five and half lakh villages electrified earlier) that are inhabited by Dalits and adivasis. He accused the Congress of deliberately ignoring these villages as it did not bring the party any substantial gain

Read More: Rafale deal controversy: French government’s statement, what is says, what it doesn’t

Modi completely sidestepped Rahul Gandhi’s charge that the PM had been benefiting his “industralist friends” while ignoring the youth, farmers, Dalits and women.

In response to Rahul Gandhi’s criticism that the NDA took care of big businesses at the cost of farmers and small businessmen, Modi asserted his government’s pro-poor stance and listed schemes for them

“Today, around Rs 80,000 crore has been deposited in more than 32 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts. Eight crore toilets have been built. More than 4.5 crore women are leading smoke-free lives because of our Ujjwala scheme. At the same time, lakhs would benefit from Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. Rs 80,000 crore is being spent on irrigation projects. Why couldn’t the Congress introduce these?” he asked.

Most of these claims have already become contentious. Modi, however, cited the same numbers that his partymen have been touting for months.

Modi remained silent on the issue of increasing mob lynching incidents, nor did he address the concerns raised on the security of Dalits and minorities.

Rahul Gandhi, talking about the June 2017 Doklam standoff between Indian and China, said that while soldiers stood their ground, the Prime Minister could not. He (PM) buckled under pressure from China.

Modi evaded replying to the charge or informing the House what exactly happened. He only hit back, saying: “One of the leaders spoke about Doklam. The same leader, who believed the Chinese Ambassador over our forces. What have we come to? Everything does not merit a childish conduct.” China was reported to have built a military base in the area.

To the Congress party describing the surgical strike of 2016 as “jumla strike”, Narendra Modi said: “We have seen how the Army Chief was insulted by their (Congress) leaders. You have called surgical strike a jumla strike, the country will not forgive you. You can abuse Modi but not the forces. Stop insulting the jawans of India.” The allegation was about Modi government and BJP talking about the surgical strike as a first, when the army has said such it had taken such action earlier as well.

Read More:  Hug gone wrong? BJP to bring privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi for his allegations on Rafale deal

He also did not give a clear answer to the controversial Rafale combat planes deal.

While he focused on the economy, he dismissed social concerns as merely a part of the opposition’s “pessimistic” politics.

Rahul Gandhi had alleged that youngsters believed the Prime Minister when he said that 2 crore jobs will be created every year. “But only 4 lakh jobs were generated by the government.” “China gives jobs to 50,000 people a day, the BJP to 450,” he claimed. While figures cited by Rahul Gandhi were also doubtful, there have been reports about falling employment and the PM’s answer fudged facts.

The PM said, “Truth was being trampled over in the job debate and the opposition was misleading the country. The government has decided to publish monthly job data and detailed data from the EPFO to lend weight to the argument. Between September 2017 and May 2018, 45 lakh new subscribers joined the EPFO out of which 72% were less than 28 years of age. Taking the EPF and NPS subscribers together, more than 50 lakh jobs were created in nine months. This figure will reach 70 lakh for the full year.”

These, in fact were existing jobs entering government data, according to previous media reports. Modi also cited number of vehicles manufactured saying each vehicle gave jobs to some people. Fact is, the factories manufacturing vehicles were already there with their workforce and these jobs did not indicate generation of additional employment.

Throughout his speech, his primary concern was to outwit the Congress as he touched upon the issue of Andhra Pradesh’s demand of a special category status only for about five minutes in his lengthy reply.

Read More: No confidence motion: After a scathing attack, Rahul Gandhi hugs PM Modi

The prime minister also chose the occasion to respond to an accusation that his government has been facing for some months now – that the BJP’s policies and cronyism has led to an unprecedented burden on Indian banks as debt-laden companies defaulted. He, however, blamed the whole crisis on the Congress. “The story of NPAs began in 2008. 2009 was an election year. It was in 2008 that the Congress started the loot of banks by allowing multiple loans to its favourites.”

PM Modi said: “I want to tell you about the NPA problem. Much before Internet Banking, Congress Party invented Phone Banking and this caused the NPA mess. A phone call would get loans for their cronies and the nation suffered.”

“I was shocked when we came to power. You will be amazed to know that banks had loaned only Rs 18 lakh crore for 60 years of independence but between 2008 and 2014, the loans increased to Rs 52 lakh crore. Telephone aaya loan de do. Desh NPA ki janjaal mein phans gayi. NPAs are like landmines which the Congress introduced,” he said.

Modi avoided talking of the growth in NPAs under his watch.

Notably, while most of the opposition leaders raised the negative impact of two most-publicised reforms, demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax,  that was introduced by Modi, the prime minister chose to only indirectly address these concerns, said an analysis by news portal TheWire. Both were touted as the two most significant reforms India has ever seen.

Read More: No confidence vote: Outcome known, BJP & Opposition hope to score propaganda points

While the PM did not mention demonetisation at all, he spoke about multiple laws and measures his government had taken to stop the flow of black money. He also did not address the opposition’s charge that GST had been hastily and poorly implemented. Instead, he used GST to attack the Congress and said that the grand old party had stalled the GST for eight years. On the charge that he had himself opposed GST as the chief minister of Gujarat, he said that he had opposed it because the Congress had not taken concerns raised by states into consideration.

Finally, Modi government won the vote on the floor but it is not clear how representative the division witnessed in the Lok Sabha is of national voting preferences. NDTV calculated that the 2014 vote share of the parties voting for the government was 37%, compared to 43% for the parties voting against the government.

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Rahul Gandhi warns ED, CBI of strong action whenever government changes

The Congress leader’s statement follows after the Income Tax department’s fresh notices asking the party to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore.

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Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused central agencies of working at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre and warned them that strict action will be taken against these institutions when the government changes.

The senior Congress leader asserted that if the institutions had done their jobs properly there would have been no problem. He added that these agencies should think that some day the BJP government will change and after that there will be action. He further said that it is his guarantee that the action will be so strong that no institution will dare to do such things again.

Taking to social media platform X, Rahul Gandhi wrote that when the government changes, action will definitely be taken against those who destroyed the democracy. Mentioning that it is his guarantee, Rahul Gandhi said that such actions will be taken that no one will dare to do all this again.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement follows after the income tax department’s fresh notices asking the party to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore. The party has accused the ruling BJP of indulging in tax terrorism to financially cripple the opposition party ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

While addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters along with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, party treasurer Ajay Maken alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws. He said the I-T department should raise a demand of Rs 4,617.58 crore from the saffron party for such violations.

Ajay Maken said that the income-tax returns filed by Congress for eight years have been reopened on baseless and manufactured grounds to levy illegal I-T demand orders totalling thousands of crores of rupees. He stated that the timing of the I-T department’s action in February and March, days before and even days after the Lok Sabha election were announced on March 16, speaks for itself about the mala-fide nature of these actions.

Furthermore, the opposition party will hold nationwide protests over the weekend against fresh income tax demand of over Rs 1,800 crore, which it has described as an egregious attack on democracy and imposition of tax terrorism amid the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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Jammu and Kashmir: 10 killed as taxi rolls into gorge at Ramban, PM Modi announces ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh

Ramban deputy magistrate said that it was pitch dark and raining heavily when the accident occurred near Battery Chashma around 1.15am.

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In an unfortunate incident, ten passengers were killed when a taxi veered off the road amid heavy rain and fell into a gorge in Ramban district on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway early on Friday.

Baseer-ul-haq, Ramban deputy magistrate said that it was pitch dark and raining heavily when the accident occurred near Battery Chashma around 1.15am. He added that while the vehicle, believed to be a Chevrolet Tavera, has not been traced yet, 10 bodies have been recovered from the steep slope from where it went down 500 metres.

Police along with quick reaction teams, the local tehsildar, assistant commissioner, revenue, and other officials were at the spot supervising rescue work. Reports said that two identity cards were recovered from two bodies. 

The bodies were identified as taxi driver Balwan Singh, 47, of Amb Gharota in Jammu district, and Vipin Mukhiya, of Bhairagang in West Champaran district of Bihar. The identified bodies were taken to Ramban district hospital. Police asserted the taxi was on its way to Kashmir from Jammu.

Expressing grief over the accident in Ramban, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF, which would be given to the next of kin of each deceased. Furthermore, the injured would be given Rs 50,000.  PM Narendra Modi also extended condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for a quick recovery of the injured. 

Taking to social media platform X, President Droupadi Murmu said that the news of many people getting killed after a vehicle fell into a ditch in Ramban area on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is very sad. She also offered condolences to the bereaved families.

Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir police shared on social media platform that a passenger taxi rolled down a deep gorge on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway near Battery Chashma in Ramban area. It added that Police, SDRF and civil QRT Ramban reached on spot, rescue operation is going on.

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Hardeep Singh Puri says Sunita Kejriwal is preparing to hold Delhi CM post like Rabri Devi

The Union Minister was speaking to the media during the inauguration of Delhi BJP’s election office along with leaders including Delhi BJP Chief Virendra Sachdeva and Bansuri Swaraj.

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Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday compared Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, hinting that she may be gearing up to take on her husband’s post. The Union Minister was speaking to the media during the inauguration of Delhi BJP’s election office.

The BJP leader further took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister for forming an alliance with the most corrupt party against whom they had started an anti-corruption movement with social activist Anna Hazare. The minister made the statement in response to a question regarding Sunita Kejriwal, who earlier today launched a whatsapp campaign advocating for support for her husband, who is in ED custody in connection with the Excise policy case.

In a video Sunita Kejriwal said her husband has challenged the most corrupt and dictatorial forces in the country and asked people to support her husband through their prayers and blessings. She issued 2 WhatsApp numbers 8297324624 and 9700297002 through which people can send their blessings, prayers or any other messages to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and she will communicate those to him.

She said yesterday Kejriwal had presented his side in the court, and the entire country heard it. She requested the people to listen to it if they had not listened till now. She added whatever Kejriwal had said in front of the court required a lot of courage. She said her husband is a true patriot. She requested the people to participate in the Kejriwal ko Aashirwad campaign.

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari also took a dig at Aam Aami Party asking why only Kejriwal’s wife is coming out in his support, and not the people of Delhi. He said the Honorable Justice of High Court said they cannot stop Arvind Kejriwals’ arrest that they are surprised why he hasn’t been arrested yet?

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