President's speech: Surgical strikes get opposition support, not demonetisation (Sidelights)

The mention of surgical strikes during President Pranab Mukherjee's address to the joint session of Parliament was overwhelmingly welcomed by the treasury and a few of the opposition members but when it came to demonetisation, the opposition took no interest.

During his address, when President Mukherjee mentioned about the defence forces successfully conducting surgical strikes at several launch pads along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir to prevent infiltration by terrorists, the NDA and some of the opposition members welcomed it by loudly thumping their desks. However, a major chunk of opposition members looked unimpressed.

The entire opposition looked unimpressed when the President made a reference to demonetisation. But NDA members thumped their desks loudly.

DMK MP interrupts President's speech:

Members of both the houses were taken aback when DMK Rajya Sabha member Tiruchi Siva raised the issue of suicides by Tamil Nadu farmers. Siva said around 200 farmers committed suicide due to drought but it found no mention in the President's speech.

However, such interruptions during the President's speech are not new. On previous occasions, the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti and Shiv Sena also raised their issues during the UPA rule.

Mulayam leaves before President:

Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav left the central hall before the ceremonial departure of the President. When Vice President Hamid Ansari was reading out the President's address in Hindi, Mulayam walked away from his seat. He didn't even stop when the National Anthem started playing.

Vijay Goel chats with Rahul, greets Sonia:

After the President's departure, when members began to leave, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was seen talking to Sports Minister Vijay Goel. They shook hands and chatted for sometime. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi reached near them followed by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs S. S. Ahluwalia. All the leaders were seen discussing things in a lighter vein.

President mentioned poor 21 times :

During his hour long speech President Mukherjee mentioned the word poor at least 21 times and farmers and kisan nine times. An opposition member later said, this was done deliberately just to show to the people that the government cares about them.

Several benches remain vacant :

Perhaps for the first time in the last some years, many of the benches remained empty during the President's address. On previous occasions, during Presidential addresses, extra chairs used to be placed to accommodate the members and delegates. Despite these, many of the members used to stand and listen to the speech.

Modi with Jaitley, Sonia with Advani

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seated next to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad in the front row.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi was seated next to BJP stalwart L.K.Advani and former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda.

--IANS

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