Speech

BJP Betrayed Nation : Sonia Gandhi
The Speech of Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, on March 15 during the discussion on Motion of Thanks on President’s Address to the joint session of Parliament

Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, I rise to speak on the Honourable President’s Address.

Before I proceed to respond to the issues raised in the Address, I cannot but refer to the tragic accident which took the life of our esteemed Speaker, Shri GMC Balayogi. During his short stint, he endeared himself to each one of us with his gentle manners and fair-minded rulings. We will for long continue to miss him.

I also join the Honourable President in paying homage to the martyrs who gave their lives to defend our Parliament, the supreme symbol of our democracy. The President’s Address says, I quote maintainance of communal harmony and adherence to the secular ideas of our constitution are the bedrock of our national ethos, unquote.

I rise in anguish and pain at the carnage at Godhra first and the subsequent genocide in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat and other places in the land of the Mahatma. Gujarat is a symptom of a deeper malaise afflicting India. That disease is called the politics of hate. The proponent of such politics sit right in front of me. Some of them are chargesheeted. The traumatic events in Gujarat have demeaned us as civilized human beings, as citizens of a modern progressive, liberal society with a cherished heritage of living together in a spirit of amity and friendship. The guilty must not be spared the punishment they deserve. We must unite to ensure that peace returns to Gujarat and that such incidents do not take place elsewhere at any time.

I visited the affected areas in Godhra and Ahmedabad as a member of the all-Party delegation. Words are too inadequate to express our horror at what we saw. The remains of charred bogies in Godhra, the horrible injuries suffered by the poor and the helpless in Ahmedabad for no fault of theirs, frightened survivors, gutted properties and looted shops. In Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital a wounded young child, the only survivor of a large family, in Darya Gumbaz camp, a father holding in his arms his young daughter who had been molested in front of him and his wife, the harrowing tale of the grieving widow of our MP Ehsan Jaffery ... These images have shattered us and will continue to haunt us. These brutalities were committed under the very eyes of the State Government, whose complicity has been thoroughly exposed.

Sir, I heard the Home Minister reply to the debate on Gujarat. Much of what he said was at variance with what we saw, with what we heard from the victims directly and from the officials who briefed us. The Home Minister gave the state government a clean chit and congratulated himself for bringing the situation under control speedily. He did so on 1st March at 5.30 p.m - when Gujarat was burning. How he could do so in the face of clear evidence to the contrary is beyond me. The Home Minister came up with an incredulous explanation for the delay in deploying the army, that it could have affected security on our borders.

Is it not shocking that a government that makes so much of security did not see it fit to make contingency plans to deal with precisely such a situation. The state government has been guilty of dereliction of its Constitutional duties and obligations. The continuance of such an irresponsible and callous government is an affront to our democracy. Its refusal to institute a probe headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court mocks the feelings of all caring Indians.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Central government’s acts of omission and commission in handling the situation in Ayodhya caused by the actions of the VHP is shameful, to say the least. Despite all our warnings on the build-up of tensions in Ayodhya, these were allowed to grow. At the all-Party meeting convened by the Prime Minister on 26th February on our initiative, the attitude of the Prime Minister and his Home Minister was, as some of you will bear me out, shockingly casual. Both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister wondered at our concern, since, according to them, there had been no violation of law at Ayodhya. We were told that some ‘yagnas’ were taking place in the undisputed area and there was no cause for alarm. This was an outrageous distortion of the facts on the ground.

Sir, the President spoke with reassurance of his government’s determination to protect the status quo in Ayodhya. But, on the 13th, the other day, the country learned in the Supreme Court with shock and dismay, of the duplicity of the Government’s agenda. It now transpires that while the people were made to believe that the Prime Minister and his government were neutral in regard to the proposed VHP plan, the Prime Minister was instructing his Attorney-General to plead for that very plan in the court.

Indeed, the Prime Minister’s statements have been ambiguous throughout. The Prime Minister initiated a dialogue with religious and community leaders. This was no substitute for firm resolve action by the government. The Prime Minister and his senior party colleagues exhibited neither the will nor the capacity to deal with the VHP’s blackmail. As a matter of fact, Sir, the central government tacitly connived with the VHP and has now been exposed as openly collaborating with them.

On February 27th, the Home Minister wrote to the state governments saying that in view of the volatile situation, all volunteers and prominent leaders of the VHP must be prevented from proceeding to Ayodhya. A few days later, on March 11, the state governments were asked to provide police protection to karsewaks travelling by train to Ayodhya. Why this U-turn?

Perhaps the explanation lies in the letter written to the P.M. on the 7th March by several BJP MPs threatening him and his government with dire consequences if the Prime Minister did not fall in line with their demands. Could this be the reason which made the Prime Minister change his mind and cause the government to instruct the Attorney-General to intervene in the manner he did in the Supreme Court? What are we to make of such a government? A government that does not know its mind and full of contradictions, which puts factional pressures above the national interest, and caves in to communal forces.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I turn now to national security. After the terrible events of December 13th, the government received our broad support to deal with the situation in a manner that best protected the national interest. Thereafter, we saw an unprecedented build up of troops on our borders. Today Sir, three months later, the nation seeks answers to some basic questions.

1. What progress has been made in extraditing the 20 most-wanted persons identified by us from Pakistan?

2. To what degree has cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir declined?

3. In what way has Pakistan’s approach to and policy on Jammu and Kashmir changed?

4. In what way has the international community responded to our concerns after General Musharraf’s speech of 12 January?

Sir, the government claims that it has a clear strategy on Jammu & Kashmir. We see no evidence of this. The misery and suffering of our brothers and sisters in Jammu and Kashmir continues unabated. The lives of our valiant security personnel continue to be at grave risk. The support that the government has been receiving from us and indeed from the entire country in its search for a durable peace in Jammu and Kashmir has, I am afraid, been frittered away.

On security, I regret to point out that even after two years and more, this House is still in the dark about the action taken on the Subrahmanyam Committee report on Kargil. As a matter of fact, we have not even been given an opportunity to discuss the report in the House, leave alone its implementation. Instead what we get out of the Defence Ministry are an unending series of scams and scandals, skeletons tumbling out of everycupboard. An inquiry commission has been set up. Shockingly, long before the commission completes its inquiry, the Prime Minister-none-the less-rehabilitates the subject of the inquiry and gives him a clean chit. The CVC report on defence deals is being hushed up. Journalists who have exposed corruption in high places are being harassed.

A member of the Union Cabinet has mounted a scathing attack on the CAG and is defying the authority of the PAC. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I ask the P.M. what are we to make of all this? This is a farce - plain and simple. This is the theatre of the absurd.

On the situation in the North East, the President has said, I quote: “peace, security and development in North East continue to receive my government’s focussed attention.” How ironic! The ad-hoc way in which the government handled the talks with the insurgent groups led to turmoil and violence in Manipur and other parts of North East. Some of the NDA partners colluded to topple the Congress government in Manipur. Their own government quarreled over the spoils of office and fell. As a result, ethnic strife and political anarchy followed. Notwithstanding the deplorable collusion between the NDA partners and the underground during the recent elections, the brave people of Manipur have spoken. The Congress is now heading a coalition government in the state.

Sir, the recent Budget has made a mockery of the sentiments expressed in the President’s address. It is full of tokenisms. The government claims that the economic fundaments are sound. How can it say so? For four long years there has been a deceleration in growth, slowdown in industry and famine in investment. The employment scene has never been so grim.

As a matter of fact, the government’s policies have struck fear in the hearts of the working classes. Where is the consultation that should have taken place with trade unions and with the National Labour Commission? At a time when the country is facing sharp economic slowdown, why is the government talking of retrenchment? We have heard about the hire and fire. There is no hire taking place and all that this government is concerned about is fire. This is a misplaced priority.

The President’s address claims that the government is committed to rural development. Yet we find in the Budget that the allocation for the Department of Rural Development in 2002-03 is lower than the anticipated expenditure in 2001-02. Worse still, in terms of physical achievement, there is a shocking shortfall in attaining targets in every programme of that Ministry. The failure in rural development aggravates the burden of our farmers who are already groaning under the burden of mounting debt, thanks to the increase in the price of urea and other fertilizers. Housewives have been hit hard by increases in prices of kerosene and cooking gas. Pensioners and senior citizens are seeing the value of their savings dwindle. We have yet to see a significant programme to utilize the huge stocks of foodgrains presently in the government godowns to benefit the weaker sections of our society and the vulnerable regions of our country. The President’s address claims credit for privatization: Sir, why are profit-making companies being sold off? Why are strong public sector companies being weakened?

Sir, another serious matter that agitates us is the communalization of our educational and intellectual institutions. It is not just communalization but the manner in which bigots are being placed in positions of prominence and responsibility. Academic excellence and integrity has been abandoned in favour of those who champion sectarian agendas with half-truths, lies and distortions. We demand the immediate constitution and convening of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) without whose explicit approval there can be no changes authorised in textbooks.

Before closing Sir, let me say how gratified I was to listen to para 47 of the President’s address where he drew attention to the fact that this year marks the first decade of empowerment of panchayats and nagarpalikas through the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution. These amendments, are in some ways, the most enduring legacy of Rajiv Gandhi and the fact that we now have 34 lakh elected representatives at the grassroots, over 10 lakh of whom are women is a matter of great pride to the Congress party. There is, however, a long way to go to fully realise his dreams. Therefore, Sir, while I completely associate myself with the sentiments expressed by the Honourable President, and I would like to suggest that we have a special debate on how these institutions of local self-government can be strengthened.

Sir, in conclusion, I place on record our grave concern and dismay at the comprehensive collapse of governance at the Centre. With every passing day, the BJP-led government’s total ineptitude, shocking insensitivity and blatant support to bigoted forces stand exposed. The consequences are being borne in a most tragic manner by our people.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, our people yearn for peace and harmony, our people yearn for security, for a life of dignity, our people yearn for a life of prosperity and well-being. This government has betrayed their hopes and their expectations. This Government has failed the nation.