Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday castigated the Opposition for practising what he termed “negative politics”, and pointed out that his own voice was sought to be muffled in the last Parliament session by rival parties “without remorse”. He urged Opposition leaders to engage in constructive work on the commencement of the Budget Session on Monday, asserting that Parliament was not for “dal” (party) but for “desh” (nation).
Making his customary remarks to the media ahead of the start of the Parliament session, Mr. Modi said that the Union Budget, which will be presented on Tuesday, would set the direction for the next five years, and lay the foundation for fulfilling the dream of ‘Viksit Bharat’ in 2047.
The PM said he wanted to tell all MPs that while the parties had been engaged in battle mode in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election since January this year, the people had given their verdict. “Now, it is the responsibility of all elected representatives and of all political parties that we have fought for our respective parties, and now, for the next five years, we have to fight for the country and strive for it,” Mr. Modi said.
“I say with a lot of sadness that after 2014, some MPs were elected for five years, some for 10 years, but many MPs did not get a chance to talk about their constituency and share their views in Parliament because of the negative politics of some parties that misused Parliament to hide their political failures,” he said.
“You would have seen that in the first session of this Lok Sabha. An undemocratic attempt was made to scuttle the voice of the government that had been ordered by 140 crore Indians to serve. For two-and-a-half hours, attempts were made to scuttle the voice of the Prime Minister, and such a thing has no place in democratic traditions. They have no remorse over it,” Mr. Modi said.
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His remarks were an apparent reference to the incident in the last session when Mr. Modi delivered his reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address amid vociferous protests and sloganeering by the Opposition, which was demanding that both MPs from Manipur be allowed to speak.
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“It is a matter of immense pride for me personally as well as for all of our colleagues that after nearly 60 years, a government has come back for the third time, and has the privilege of presenting the first Budget of a third term. The country is seeing this as a very proud event in the glorious journey of Indian democracy,” he said.
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Published – July 22, 2024 10:59 am IST
