Hon.
Chairman Sir, I thank you for giving me an
opportunity to speak on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.
We know that it is customary that a President’s Address, though delivered
by the hon. President, is basically the Government’s policy which has
been written by the Government and it is only through her
that the Government’s policy is expressed. To add more evidence to that, our hon.
President being a Scheduled Tribe person has not been able to
mention even a single word about the horrors which have happened in a North-Eastern
State. If she had been100
given an opportunity, I am sure that she would have said at least
a word of consolation or a word120
of confidence to the local people over there. It is sad that this Government
did not give her an opportunity to add even a single word or a single line to
at least console the people of that region to make them feel that they are
also a part of this country and they are not alienated from
this country.
Sir,
the President’s Address had a lot of points about development, growth and GDP.
This Government has consistently been comparing200 what has happened in the last ten
years to the tenures prior to that. If you look at India, it is a culturally
rich country and it has a very long heritage. If you look at India even
during the240 Mughal period, she
was considered as one of the richest nations accounting for something like 25
to 30 per cent of the world’s GDP. Subsequently, under the British rule, the
wealth of India was siphoned off till the GDP of India came to around
one per cent or two per cent of the world’s GDP. So, after our Independence300 in 1947, in the next 44 years, we had a
very primitive way of looking at our economy. In those days, the country
was at a nascent stage and we had to make sure that the freedom that we had
achieved in a peaceful way was protected. We were able to achieve our
freedom because of the360
efforts of our great leaders. When India became free, many countries were
saying that India would not remain a free nation for long and it would soon disintegrate
and collapse. Despite that, nation building was the primary motive for the400 next 40 years. During that period,
we also had to make sure that we have enough agricultural produce, enough milk produce,
etc. From the Green Revolution to the White Revolution, everything was
happening. It was only from 1991 that the economy of the country was
opened up. If you see the growth of India since then, it has grown in a very
successful and commendable way. If you look at the decadal growth from
1994, our480 GDP was about 300
billion dollars in 1994 and we had touched 700 billion dollars in 2004.500 That is about 130 per cent growth which
means 13 per cent annual growth that happened during that tenure. Subsequently,
from 2004 to 2014, it went up from around 700 billion dollars to 2.1 trillion
dollars. It was a very impressive 18 per cent annual growth. It was 180 per
cent growth during that period. But if you look at what happened between
2014 and 2024, what was 2.1 trillion dollars has only reached 3.3 trillion
dollars. I agree that there were600
big challenges like the pandemic and the war between Ukraine and Russia
which set back the whole world. But despite that, our growth could have been
a little bit more promising. The growth that has happened in the last 10 years
is only about 60 per cent which annually is about six per cent. In her Address,
the President had mentioned that the inflation which was eight per cent from
2004 to 2014 has been controlled and brought down to five per cent. But you
also have to understand that whenever such huge growth is happening, 700 inflation is bound to be higher. This
Government has mentioned that they have brought 25 crore people out of720 poverty. I congratulate the Government
on this. But at the same time, the Government also says that 80 crore
people have been provided free food. Eighty crore people is about 57 per cent
of the total population. If you are saying that 80 crore people had to
be fed during the pandemic, that is understandable. But now that the pandemic
is over and we have recovered from it and we are back to normal, continuing
it for another five800 years
is paradoxical and contradictory. You have eliminated poverty,
but at the same time you are saying that 80 crore people cannot afford
to buy their own food. If this is the state of affairs, I really
wonder which statement840 I
should take as the true one.
We
were also talking about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. It is
restricted only to three countries. As our floor leader has also mentioned, we
have sadly forsaken the Sri Lankan Tamils. There are more than one lakh
Sri Lankan Tamils who are in India for more than 40 years. These people have
been900 here since 1983. They
have had children over here. None of them are given any of the facilities of
this country. We have kept them as refugees for the past 40 years. They
have been denied certain educational opportunities. Sir, this persecution
was also religious and linguistic. You have to understand that Buddhism
was the main religion in960
Sri Lanka. They had also said that non-Sinhalese speaking people should not
be staying there. This House must be aware of the horrors they went through
in July 1983 when a large number of people were murdered and1000 tortured. Even subsequently, the
horrors which have befallen them make me shudder to even think about them. I
was studying in 10th standard when this happened. I remember that it was
announced as a public holiday on the day these horrors happened. Usually,
we enjoy whenever there is holiday. But on that day, every classmate of mine
had tears listening to the horror stories which had been perpetrated
on the Tamils in Sri Lanka. So, I request this Government to1080 ensure that a suitable amendment be
made. Sir, one lakh people are living in camps over here. They all should1100 be considered and Indian citizenship
should be given to them. Two of our former Prime Ministers, Madam Indira
Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, had signed an accord saying that
citizenship will be given. 1133
