Oppn embarrasses Modi govt in RS by forcing amendment

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 3

The Opposition today demonstrated its numerical superiority in the Rajya Sabha embarrassing the Narendra Modi government by forcing an amendment to the President’s address even as the Prime Minister defended that the policies pursued by it was meant for the poor and not corporates.

The amendment to the Motion of Thanks expressing regret over the failure of the government to curb high-level corruption and bring back black money at the end of the address was carried 118-57 after Sitaram Yechury (CPM) pressed for a division.

An appeal from Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to prevent voting failed to make an impact as Yechury said later that the Opposition was not allowed to ask for a clarification from the Prime Minister who left the House almost immediately after the 70-minute reply to the Motion of Thanks, which will be conveyed to the President with the amendment.

This is the fourth occasion when an Opposition amendment to the Motion of Thanks was carried in the House, the previous ones being in 1980, 1989 and 2001, the last during the Vajpayee-led NDA regime.

Earlier, the Prime Minister said policies like Swacch Bharat campaign, toilets in government schools, soil testing, Jan Dhan Yojna, increased numbers under Direct Benefits Transfer, greater disbursement under MGNREGA etc underscored that his government was doing more for the poor and not corporates, a charge levelled by the Opposition.

Seeking to turn the tables on the Congress-led Opposition for accusing his government of renaming schemes floated by the UPA, PM Modi said that on the contrary, the UPA regime renamed schemes launched by the previous Vajpayee-led NDA government. Responding to Anand Sharma’s (Congress) jibe asking the PM not to hold the threat of action against the corrupt, Modi said threats do not work in democracy. He said during 14 years as Gujarat CM, he was threatened. “This nation did not bend during Emergency (1975-77)” he emphasised.

The PM also expressed surprise over remarks by both Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma on abrupt removal of senior bureaucrats citing that the UPA government made similar moves when it took over in 2004.

Reeling off statistics to support that his nine-month-old government had concrete achievements in many sectors, the PM said 350 projects stuck between the Railways and Road Transport Ministers were sorted out to get them going. PM Modi appealed for cooperation on the passage of the land acquisition Bill stating that the existing laws created impediments in acquiring land for social welfare and other such measures while assuring that the compensation clause has not been diluted.