Modi lashes out at disruptive Cong, hails Mulayam

Addressing public rallies in Rishikesh (Uttarakhand), Saharanpur (UP) and at a function in Chandigarh, Modi said he had decided to share his feelings before the public because ‘Jan Sabha’ (public assembly) is above the Lok Sabha where the government’s voice was being “throttled” despite being given a massive mandate by the people. 

Hitting out at the Congress over repeated deadlock in Parliament, Modi said 40 MPs were “conspiring” to hamper the country’s development against the wishes of 400 MPs which was an “insult” to democracy.

“Beyond the Lok Sabha is ‘Jan Sabha’ and that is why I am expressing my views here. Some people (opposition) are doing this just for their arrogance. There can be nothing more unfortunate than this. The people will not forgive these parties for their conduct in Parliament,” he said. 

 In the same vein, he appreciated Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav for making attempts to break the logjam in Parliament during the Monsoon session, which was washed out. “He (Mulayam Singh) may be our political <g data-gr-id="36">rival</g> but he does not practice negative politics,” said Modi, while launching a blistering attack on the Congress saying, “Opposing the government’s policies and dissenting with it is okay but doing negative politics is not good for democracy. The Congress must understand the difference between the two and learn to respect people’s verdict.”

“40 MPs are conspiring to block development of the country against the wishes of the 400 MPs. Time has come to spread awareness about democracy in the country and for the people to pressurise their representatives to do their work in Parliament by asking questions and debating issues and letting the Houses function,” he said.

Noting that the region sends <g data-gr-id="30">large number</g> of people to the armed forces, Modi said his government delivered on its promise of implementing “One Rank, One Pension (OROP).” He said his government tried to honour the soldiers by fulfilling their demand for One Rank, One Pension.

The Prime Minister said no previous government paid adequate attention to the enormity of the exercise and attacked the previous UPA dispensation, saying if it had thought about it then it would not have allotted only Rs 500 crore. The armed forces veterans should thank the poor people of the country for implementing OROP which entails a whopping Rs 10,000 crore expenditure per annum, he said. 

He said, “We also thought that perhaps the expenditure on OROP will be a bit more than Rs 500 crore.”