PM Modi's 'salesmanship' won him elections: Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury

On the first day of the discussion in Parliament on the President’s address, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) speakers praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and his government’s schemes for leading their party to victory in the general elections. Speakers from the Congress punched holes in the government’s claims on its schemes, attributed the electoral win to good “salesmanship”, and said merely praising Modi will not solve the problems of the country.

The BJP fielded minister of state Pratap Chandra Sarangi in the Lok Sabha and BJP’s working president JP Nadda in the Rajya Sabha as its lead speakers for the discussion. In both Houses, the BJP’s seconders to the motion were its tribal women MPs – Heena Gavit in the Lok Sabha and Sampatiya Uike in the Rajya Sabha. Gavit and Uike spoke of the Modi government’s schemes for tribal welfare.

In the Lok Sabha, Congress party’s leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury hit back at the BJP after Sarangi referred to alleged scams in the sale of 2G spectrum and coal block allocations. Chowdhury said if there was any wrongdoing why are UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who was sitting next to him, and Congress president Rahul Gandhi not in jail. "Why are they still in Parliament?" Chowdhury asked, as he looked at the PM and Home Minister Amit Shah across the well of the House.

Sarangi and Nadda asked the opposition to respect the people’s mandate. Sarangi, known as ‘Odisha’s Modi’ and for his frugal lifestyle, said those who do not believe in 'Vande Mataram' slogan had no right to live in India. He said "tukde-tukde" gang would not be tolerated in the country. Sarangi said criticizing Modi is like hitting one's head against the Himalayas. He took a dig at the opposition for allegedly seeking proof of Balakot air strike, asking if people "seek proof from their mother for addressing their father as father". Nadda advised the opposition to not oppose the PM for the sake of opposition and not resort to disruptions in the House.

Congress party’s Chowdhury in the Lok Sabha and Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Rajya Sabha took objection to the President’s comments that the journey of development started in 2014, and the Modi government “is committed to that very idea of nation-building, the foundation for which was laid in 2014.” Both said it was unfortunate the government has made President make such a statement, which ignored the contributions not just of the previous Congress governments, but those of others as well, including the one that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had led. Chowdhury spoke at length about the contributions of the various Congress governments, and asked if the Modi government had set up even one PSU during its tenure.

Chowdhury said Modi government is "compliment-addicted". He said Sarangi crossed all limits in praising Modi and equating him with Swami Vivekananda. The Chair later expunged a derogatory remark Chowdhury made against the PM. When asked outside Parliament, Chowdhury attribute it to his poor Hindi. To Chowdhury's criticism of eulogising the PM, many in treasury benches referred to "India is Indira and Indira is India" comment made by the then Congress president D K Barooah for Indira Gandhi when she was the prime minister. Chowdhury said the BJP returned to power as Modi was a "very big salesman" and a "better salesman" while the Congress failed to market its products in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Chowdhury said the Modi government has renamed UPA era and Vajpayee government schemes. He said the Modi government suffered from "political plagiarism" syndrome and manipulated facts. He said BJP MPs did not take steps to alleviate miseries of the people as they think Modi will do everything. "They think that praising Modi is sufficient, he will help them sail through (Modi baba paar lagayenge)," he said.

In the Rajya Sabha, Azad said the reality of the 'New India' was the spate of lynchings, including the most recent one in Jharkhand. "Give us back our 'old' India," Azad said. While not mentioning her by name, Azad asked the PM, who was present in the House during Azad’s speech, to throw out from the party BJP’s Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur if the government was serious about celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the Rajya Sabha, Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said fake encounters were taking place in the country on a large scale. He said his party’s workers were being killed in Uttar Pradesh. He said the BJP uses the issue with Pakistan for electoral gains but is scared of uttering a word as China continues to capture land that belongs to India.