Cong contemplating privilege notice against PM

The political is accusing him of making "several false and misleading" statemThe political is accusing him of making 'several false and misleading' statements in the Rajya Sabha yesterday ents in the

The Congress party is contemplating a breach of privilege motion in Parliament against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for making “several false and misleading” statements in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday like the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) copying programmes of the Vajpayee government.

“If legally found admissible, why action will not be taken?”, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said when asked whether the party would move the Privileges Committee.

Citing some instances, Singhvi said that the idea, concept and schemes of Congress-led UPA started before 1998 when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power for the first time. He said the BJP had talked about a multi-purpose identity card way back in the 1999 manifesto along with a national register of citizens and had repeated it in its 2009 Manifesto.

But the Card now known as Aadhaar became a reality after it was listed in the 2004 UPA Manifesto and the first tranche of the cards were handed over in May 2007.

“Is it fair for the Prime Minister to mislead the House? Is it not that he has been economical with truth?” he asked.

Besides, he said the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan might have been started by Vajpapyee government but it was "nothing but the District Primary Education Programme" started by the Congress government in 1993-94. He said later the Congress dispensation gave Constitutional entitlement to Right to Education.

Regarding the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, he said the genesis of it was in Malhotra Committee report of 1994. A regulator was set up by government of Congress, but it was an interim regulator.

He said that though the Antyodaya Anna Yojana was started in December 2000, till the Congress came to power in 2004 many states had not even identified poor. He said the National Food Security Act of 2013 gives a right to 2/3rd population.

“We would have excused if any other leader and not the PM had said this.....He has compared apples with oranges, gold with dirt,” Singhvi said.

Debunking Congress criticism that his government was repackaging UPA's schemes, the Prime Minister had on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha taken potshots at Congress saying how would they accept the role of somebody else in development, when they do not give credit to anybody else even for the freedom struggle. Congress has time and again alleged that the NDA government led by Modi is a ‘copycat’ government and just renamed UPA’s schemes.