Madam
Speaker, I rise to join all Members of this august House in
conveying our sincere thanks to hon. President for his enlightened
Address. The debate on the President's Address has been vigorous and
wide ranging. I thank all the hon. Members who have contributed to this
debate. Madam, as hon. President mentioned in the initial parts of his Address,
our economy has faced a difficult situation in the past one year. Hon.
Members are aware that our growth has slowed down and the fiscal deficit
has risen. Inflation has been a persistent problem in the last two
years. The100 Current
Account Deficit is substantially higher than what we would like it
to be. The Finance Minister has dealt with120 all these issues in his Budget
speech, and before that the Economic Survey tabled in this House
gave a fairly comprehensive picture of the state of economy. I would
therefore be brief in speaking about the challenges that confront our economy
and what we need to do to overcome them. However, Madam, I do wish to emphatically
endorse the view of the Finance Minister that the slowdown in the economy need
not persist, and that we are fully capable of200 putting the country back on a high
growth path of 7 to 8 per cent per annum in the next two to three years. To
achieve this, we need to increase the rate of investment, especially in
infrastructure. Our effort,240
therefore, will be to raise domestic savings, contain the growth of subsidies
and encourage private investment. While our aim is to achieve an average
GDP growth of 8 per cent during the 124 Plan and agricultural growth of 4 per
cent, the focus will continue to remain on inclusive growth. Inclusive growth
implies not only reducing poverty, but300
also improving regional equality across and within States, uplift of the Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities,
closing gender gaps and generating more and better employment opportunities.
Our policies have been designed to fulfil these objectives.
Madam,
with regard to poverty, in the UPA Period, poverty declined at an
average rate of two per cent per annum.360
In the preceding ten years, the rate of decline was no more than 0.8 per cent. With
regard to regional inequalities, inter-State growth differential has
narrowed and inter-State inequality is not increasing. The so-called backward
States have also400 done
much better in the UPA Period than was the case previously. In terms of
education and skill development also, the achievements of the UPA Government are
really notable. The key instruments for promoting inclusiveness and
empowerment are education, health and skill development. There has been
near universal enrolment in primary schools and a steady increase
in average number of years of schooling of the labour force.
Madam,
it is not my case that what we have achieved is the500 optimum level. I do recognise
that growth requires further efforts to boost it. We need to do lot more to
promote inclusiveness, health and education require greater attention,
and environment protection measures have to be adopted with
greater amount of firmness. But I would respectfully submit to this august
House that what has been achieved is not something which can be
belittled as Shri Rajnath Singh tried to do. I know that BJP has a
particular view towards the economic and social policy of the UPA. A few
days ago, a conclave of the National Council of BJP assembled in600 Delhi used the choicest abuses
for the Congress establishment and Congress leadership including myself. It
is not my intention to reply them in that language because I
do believe that our work and our performance are the best judges of what
we have achieved. We have seen this arrogance not for the
first time. The Shining India campaign in 2004 led to disastrous results
for the BJP. In 2009, they fielded the iron man Shri Advani against the lamb
that Dr. Manmohan Singh is, and we know what the result was. I am
convinced that if700 the
people of India were to look at our record in these nine or ten years, they
would repeat what720 they did
in 2004 and 2009. Madam, several hon. Members have expressed concern about the
state of agriculture. I share that concern. Farmers in our country are
the most important constituent that the UPA cares for. We have
done utmost to give our farmers remunerative prices, and here I would
like to mention that the procurement prices of wheat, rice and other
products have been raised in a manner which was never seen before in the800 history of this country.
Madam,
several hon. Members, cutting across party lines, have expressed concern over
incidents of violence against women. This is an issue, which unites all
sections of the House, and I sincerely appeal to all sections of840 the House to speak with one
voice. If there are any legislative measures, which we can agree
upon, they can be then pushed forward at a much higher speed than is normally
done when it comes to legislation through Parliament. I sincerely hope that we
will agree to go forward in a manner which will do justice to 50 per900 cent of India’s population, that is, our
women and children. Let me reiterate to this august House the commitment
of our Government to ensuring the dignity, safety and security of every woman of
this country. We have adopted a series of measures- legislative, institutional
and procedural, which reaffirm the collective responsibility of this
Government in this direction as more and960 more women enter public spaces.
The Government has been prompt in acting on the recommendations of the Justice
Verma Committee, by promulgating an Ordinance amending and strengthening
the law to deal with crimes of sexual violence against women.998
