President lauds note ban, surgical strikes; favours joint polls

His address to the joint session of Parliament spells out the Modi mantra: we stand for development

The uplift of the poor would continue to be the centrepiece of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to the joint session of the two Houses of Parliament reiterated.

The President’s speech is made at the beginning of the first session of Parliament in a calendar year. The speech is prepared by the government and read by the President. It outlines the achievements of the previous year and spells out the priorities of the government. 

The poor, the disadvantaged and the deprived featured at nearly 12 places in the speech.

The Jan-Dhan accounts, the fact that 12 million people had given up LPG subsidies, and that 130 million people had been covered by social security schemes meant for the poor testified to the government’s commitment to the underprivileged, the speech said.

To include the rural poor in the formal economy, the government said it had expanded the functions of the post office bank, with more than 250,000 dak sewaks acting as banking correspondents. It said more than Rs 2 lakh crore had been provided through 56 million loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana to ensure collateral-free bank financing for the unfunded and to promote small businesses. Seventy per cent of this had gone to women entrepreneurs, the speech said.

However, it said nothing about the financial inclusion of the Dalits. While the speech paid tributes to the forbearance of the people during the demonetisation move, it also explained the rationale behind the step — it was an anti-corruption drive, and therefore the money did not escape the tax net. 
 

The speech referred to pieces of legislation and treaty amendments that “have together resulted in a comprehensive policy backed initiative against black money”. 

The items referred to were the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015; Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016; the Taxation Amendment Act, providing for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana; and amendments to treaties with Singapore, Cyprus and Mauritius to prevent tax evasion and the movement of black money in India. 

The speech also spoke of the government’s steps to support the minorities in India financially, as part of the inclusive ‘sabka saath sabka vikas’ slogan. It detailed all that the government had done to develop the physical infrastructure: 73,000 km of roads added in rural areas, and the upgrade of more than 5,000 km of roads in 44 Left-Wing extremism-affected districts.

The speech said the national civil aviation policy would give a boost to air connectivity in smaller cities and towns and reforms in the power sector would mean more progress. The thrust of the speech, which is the political message of the government, seemed to be that the government would remain committed to the betterment of the poor.

So the main message was development rather than any contentious religious or caste-specific promises.