NDA’s third term marred with paper leaks, terror attacks, train accident, airport canopy collapse: Kharge

Kharge said the President's speech has also "ignored" the challenges faced by the country and tried to hide the government's failure.

ByPTI

Published Jul 01, 2024 | 4:46 PM Updated Jul 01, 2024 | 4:46 PM

Mallikarjun Kharge speaking in Kalaburagi.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday, 1 July, took a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the last 10 years of his rule was just a trailer and ‘picture abhi baaki hai‘, saying the third term of NDA has seen exam paper leaks, terror attack in J&K, train accident, airport canopy collapse, bridges cave-ins and toll tax hike.

Participating in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Kharge said the prime minister during the Lok Sabha election campaign stated many times that “pichle 10 saal toh bas trailer tha, abhi asli picture baaki hai” (last ten years was just a trailer, the real picture is yet to come).

“How the PM’s picture would be, we have been able to imagine in the last one month,” Kharge quipped.

Also Read: Opposing policies and obstructing Parliament two different things: President Murmu

Lists out incidents

Listing out many recent incidents, Kharge pointed out that there have been exam paper leaks, cancellation of many examinations, train accidents, three terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir, leakages in Ram temple, the collapse of the canopy at three airports, an increase in toll taxes and depreciation of the rupee.

Kharge said the future of 30 lakh students has been affected due to recent paper leaks.

“If this keeps happening, students will stop their studies,” he said

In the last seven years, there have been paper leaks 70 times, Kharge said, adding that this has affected the future of 2 crore students.

The leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the upper house further said that the government was not doing anything on this matter and blamed opposition parties for raising the issue in Parliament.

He asked the government to improve the examination system in the country.

‘Did not mention Manipur’

Expressing dismay at the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament last week, he said the speech did not make any mention of the Manipur situation.

Kharge said the PM did not visit Manipur, which has been burning since the last one year.

The LoP said there was no vision or direction in the President’s address to Parliament and attacked the ruling party for only giving slogans and not doing development works.

Kharge said the President’s speech has also “ignored” the challenges faced by the country and tried to hide the government’s failure.

He said there was no mention about the poor, dalits and minorities in the President’s address.

Also Read: Criminal laws passed ‘forcibly’, INDIA will not allow ‘bulldozer justice’: Kharge

Targets Modi

Targeting Prime Minister Modi, he said opposition parties talk about the plight of the common man, while Modi was only doing ‘Mann Ki Baat‘.

Kharge said Modi is an expert in only giving slogans.

Accusing the prime minister of trying to divide the society through his speeches during polls, he said no prime minister has done this before.

Kharge also attacked the ruling benches for not taking along opposition parties.

He charged that many elected governments of Opposition parties, including in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, were dislodged while chief ministers have been jailed and said this is against “democracy and the Constitution”.

He also appealed to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to put back statues of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar and other leaders at their original places in the Parliament complex.

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