President's address: Kharge accuses PM Modi of being 'perpetually in denial'

New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said after listening to the President's address it seems Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a state of perpetual denial, claiming that people of India have rejected him in this election by not giving the BJP a majority.

He also said that there was no mention of the NEET issue resolution, price rise, unemployment, violence in Manipur, terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, train accidents and the plight of passengers in trains and atrocities on Dalits, adivasis and minorities in BJP-ruled states.

"Listening to the President's address written by the Modi government, it seemed as if Modi ji is in a perpetual state of denial! The mandate was against him because the people of the country rejected his slogan of "400 plus" and kept the BJP away from the figure of 272. Modi ji is unable to accept this, that is why he is pretending that nothing has changed, but the truth is that the people of the country had asked for change," Kharge said in a post on X.

"Overall, Modi ji is making a futile attempt to garner some applause by making the Honourable President read lies, which the people of India have rejected in the 2024 elections," he said while referring to the President's address to the joint sitting of both houses.

Kharge said though he will give a detailed response in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, but prima facie he found that "whitewashing will not work in the NEET scam".

In the last five years, the Congress chief said, out of 66 recruitment exams conducted by the NTA, paper leaks and rigging has happened in 12 exams due to which more than 75 lakh youth have been affected.

"Modi Government cannot run away from its responsibility by just simply saying that 'we should rise above partisan politics'. The youth is demanding justice. Union Education Minister will have to take responsibility for this. Every second youth in the country is unemployed, and no concrete policy to eliminate unemployment has emerged from this speech," Kharge said.

"There is no mention of 5 main issues even once in the entire address," he said listing out backbreaking price rise as the first issue.

Kharge claimed that prices of everyday essential food items have skyrocketed. Food inflation has been more than 8.5 per cent for four months and the prices of atta, dal, tomatoes, onions, milk - everything is painstakingly high. Household Savings are at the lowest level in 50 years. "But the word "inflation" is missing from the entire speech." Referring to the violence in Manipur, he said 221 people have lost their lives in the violence in Manipur that has been going on for 13 months, 50,000 people are still homeless.

"The flames of violence have now spread to peaceful districts like Jiribam, while extortion and kidnappings have increased in the Imphal Valley and other areas. But the BJP CM is still shamelessly clinging to his chair. There has been no concrete initiative for peace and normalcy," the Congress president noted.

Talking about the train accidents and the plight of passengers in trains, Kharge said the Modi government did not mention the West Bengal train accident in the President’s written speech.

"The government did not learn any lessons even after the gruesome Balasore train tragedy. The much-hyped “Kavach” protection is installed on only 2% of the tracks, while according to the NCRB, there were more than 100,000 deaths related to train accidents between 2017 and 2021," he said.

On terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, Kharge said the Modi government has endangered our national security, with 2,262 terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 10 years, resulting in the loss of life of 363 civilians and 596 soldiers.

"In the last few years, there have been targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, but the Prime Minister is singing the false tune of "Naya Kashmir"," he said.

Referring to the rising atrocities on Dalits, Adivasis and minorities in the BJP-ruled states, Kharge said during the elections, Prime Minister Modi's speeches have repeatedly confirmed the fact that "the BJP/RSS's ideology is only to divide the society".

"In BJP-ruled states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, after the Modi Govt came to power, incidents of mob lynching, mobocracy, communal violence and illegal “Bulldozer Justice” to the houses of the poor have risen unabated. The ruling party cannot maintain a stoic silence on this," Kharge said.

President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday stressed the government's unwavering faith in the Constitution and efforts to make it a part of "public consciousness" while slamming the Emergency as the "biggest and darkest chapter of direct attack" on the Constitution.

In her first address to a joint sitting of both houses after Prime Minister Modi began his third term, she described the poll result as an endorsement of his government's policies while ruing attempts to hurt people's faith in electoral process, including EVMs -- an apparent swipe at the opposition parties.

"It is like cutting the very branch on which we all are sitting," she said.

Amid cancellation and deferment of some competitive exams due to suspicion of paper leaks, Murmu said her government is committed to a fair probe and ensuring punishment to the culprits.

In her 50-minute address, the President highlighted the government's measures in a range of sectors from economy, defence and farming to the empowerment of different sections of society, and laid down its priorities in its third term. PTI