Stop politics, start 'Dhang ki Baat': Sibal tells Govt.

Former union minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that the government should come up with 'Dhang ki Baat' instead of the usual 'Mann ki Baat' as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to tackle issues concerning the common man of this country during his programme.

"We should have another programme of the Government of India which should be titled 'Dhang ki Baat' ( relevant talks) because I think the right kind of issues are not being tackled by this government," said Sibal while suggesting that the BJP-led NDA Government should focus more on the problems of the common man than politicise petty things.

The Congress leader also hit back at the BJP over Union Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's allegation that the grand old party did nothing to commemorate the memory of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

"Either there's a loss of memory or he doesn't seem to apply his mind. If he would have accessed Google, he would have known that for the first time, we had issued a commemorative stamp as far back as 1965 in memory of Sardar Patel," said Sibal.

"Even on January 19, 2012, in Ahmedabad, we had issued two stamps in the memory of Patel and priced it at Rs. 60," he added.

Postage stamps introduced in 2008 featuring former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have been discontinued. As per an RTI query, the government is planning to introduce stamps featuring Deendayal Upadhyaya, Jayaprakash Narayan, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Ram Manohar Lohia in the coming months.