NDA's third term marred with paper leaks, train accident, says Kharge

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday took potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that last 10 years of his rule was just a trailer and 'picture abhi baaki hai', saying the third term of NDA has seen exam paper leaks, terror attack in J&K, train accident, airport canopy collapse, bridges cave-ins and toll tax hike.

Participating in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Kharge said the prime minister during the Lok Sabha election campaign stated many times that "pichle 10 saal toh bas trailer tha, abhi asli picture baaki hai" (last ten years was just a trailer, the real picture is yet to come).

"How the PM's picture would be, we have been able to imagine in the last one month," Kharge quipped.

Listing out many recent incidents, Kharge pointed out that there have been exam paper leaks, cancellation of many examinations, train accident, three terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir, leakages in Ram temple, collapse of canopy at three airports, increase in toll taxes and depreciation of rupee.

Kharge said the future of 30 lakh students has been affected due to recent paper leaks.

"If this keeps happening, students will stop their study," he said

In the last seven years, there have been paper leaks 70 times, Kharge said, adding that this has affected future of 2 crore students.

The leader of opposition (LoP) in the upper house further said that the government was not doing anything on this matter and blames opposition parties for raising the issue in Parliament.

He asked the government to improve the examination system in the country.

Expressing dismay at President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament last week, he said the speech did not make any mention of the Manipur situation.

Kharge said the PM did not visit Manipur, which has been burning since the last one year.

The LoP said there was no vision or direction in the President's address to Parliament and attacked the ruling party for only giving slogans and not doing development works.

Kharge said the President's speech has also "ignored" the challenges faced by the country and tried to hide the government's failure.

He said there was no mention about the poor, dalits and minorities in the President's address.

Targeting Prime Minister Modi, he said opposition parties talk about the plight of common man, while Modi was only doing 'Mann Ki Baat'.

Kharge said Modi is an expert in only giving slogans.

Accusing the PM of trying to divide the society through his speeches during polls, he said no prime minister has done this before.

Kharge also attacked the ruling benches for not taking along opposition parties.

He charged that many elected governments of opposition parties, including in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, were dislodged while chief ministers have been jailed and said this is against "democracy and the Constitution".

He also appealed to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to put back statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and that of other leaders at their original places in Parliament complex.