Congress 'sceptical' to claims of progress made in President's speech

Asserting that President Pranab Mukherjee's joint address was a comprehensive account of the government's 'claims of progress' brought to the nation, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that there was no tangible evidence of change and all that is visible is facts and figures on paper.

"Question is if these are facts and figures on paper only and whether we can actually see some genuine result on the ground. We have not seen any tangible evidence of change. What we are seeing is a lot of claims on paper, lot of programs and lot of slogans but we are yet to see real change and that remains our concern," Tharoor told ANI.

Stating that the Congress wants the country to progress, he added that they have no desire to see progress held back, but at the same time are somewhat sceptical of many of the claims being advanced by the government.

"We would like to see some of the major issues confronting the nation to be addressed in the Parliament. Certainly we would like to see a positive, useful, constructive discussion on issues like the autonomy of universities and the incidents in JNU, the sedition law, the Pathankot attack and our vulnerability to terrorism in Parliament and we will want to raise these issues in the coming days," Tharoor said.

Talking about the protest march being carried out in the national capital demanding justice for Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula who committed suicide last month, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said that the incident was an indicator of continued discrimination against Dalit students in universities.

"Rohith Vemula is one individual but what happened to him, apart from it being a personal tragedy for his family and himself, is also an extremely serious indicator of continued discrimination against Dalit students in universities. It is also a troubling sign of government interference in the running of universities and encroachment on the autonomy of universities," Tharoor said.

"These are all larger issues and it is entirely appropriate for a political party to raise these issues and to focus on them," he added.