Srinagar, Feb 25: Asserting that real danger to a family is “when enemy lives within”, senior Congress leader and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “rein in extremist forces to ensure success of ‘Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas’ slogan.”
Speaking on motion of thanks on President’s Address in Rajya Sabha, Azad said it was “shocking to see things like ghar wapsi (home coming), love jihad, attacks on Churches happening in a country which has been popular for maintaining its secular character for centuries.”
“What is happening here?” Azad asked as Prime Minister Modi and senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitly listened patiently. “I used to read books about Gandhi when I was in school and I believe he was a staunch Hindu and at the same time a die-hard secular person. None of the religions books like Geeta, Quran or Bible teaches hatred against each other. Prophets and Reshi-Munis came to this earth only to guide us to mend our ways,” he said.
Azad said “instead of uniting to take the country to a new height, some people are trying to cut the tree called India.” “It was surprising to see BJP’s top leader stating that all Hindus must unite to restore the past glory. If we have to unite, we must unite against eradicating terrorism, Naxalism and poverty,” the Congress leader said.
He said it should not be like tomorrow a Muslim will stand up and tell people that Muslim rulers have ruled India for 700 years and “we must restore the past glory.” “It should not be tomorrow a Christian leader would call for restoring the past glory of Christians on the pretext that they have ruled India for 200 years,” Azad said in his 55-minute speech.
“I believe the real danger to a family is when enemy lives within. I am hopeful that you (PM) would rein in the extremist elements so that your slogan of Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas turns out to be a reality.”
On Government Formation in J&K, Azad said the BJP government should not forget two sensitive areas of the country: J&K and North East.
“Remember the customs, traditions of these places. JK shares its borders with China and Pakistan and is also known as a border State,” Azad said.
“There are regional sentiments in JK. In 1975, Congress had two-third majority in the state while National Conference had no member in the Assembly.
Mir Qasim was ruling the State. But what we did is we brought in Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah to rule the state and asked our leaders to step down.”
It has been more than 20 years, Azad said, that Congress worked hard to retrieve the nationalist character of JK back.
“I must salute the people of JK for defeating terrorism and for staying with India,” Azad said.
Taking a dig at BJP, Azad said more than two months were wasted to impose a government on JK people.
“You (PM) wanted to have a BJP government in JK despite the fact the State faced devastating deluge after 110 years. You should have spent this time in addressing the problems of flood-hit people given the nature of problems they were facing in the months of December and January due to bone chilling cold,” Azad said, in an obvious reference to PM Modi.
“None of the BJP leaders were bothered about what happened to people who were rendered homeless due to floods. None of you wanted to see what happened to the traders, educational institutions, health infrastructure in JK.”
Azad also castigated BJP leadership for “ignoring” the people who migrated due to ceasefire violations at the LoC in Jammu region.
“None of you knew what happened to the people who were forced to leave their homes due to intense shelling and ceasefire violations on the LoC in Jammu. There have been 600 ceasefire violations on the LoC in JK,” he said.
The former JK chief minister, who recently got re-elected as the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, also sought reasons from the BJP leaders as to why there was no mention of preventing communal violence in the Country. “In the last speech of President, there was a mention of a national plan to deal with the communal violence. But in today’s presidential address, there is no mention on how to curb the communal violence,” Azad said.
ON WOMEN RESERVATION:
“In last year’s address of the President, there was a mention of giving 33 per cent reservation to women, but today I found no word on the issue. Similarly, there is no mention of security of citizens,” he said. “For the past one year, Delhi had been under Governor’s rule but violence against women showed sudden surge. Perhaps, this is the reason why there is no mention on this issue in the presidential address.”
Azad said there was no mention about the important issues like protection of minorities, retrieving black money, employment to youth, creation of 50 new tourist centers. “I want to put in on record here that Congress is hero when it comes to work and zero when it comes to publicity. But for BJP reverse is the case,” he said.
Lastupdate on : Wed, 25 Feb 2015 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 25 Feb 2015 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:00:00 IST
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