PM’s speech disappointing, fight against corruption a sham: Cong
The Congress called PM Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech “most disappointing” on Tuesday and asked him to acknowledge the failure of his government to deliver on its promises to the people after three years of ruling the country.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma hit out at Modi for making tall claims on the implementation of GST.
“For seven years, he as the Gujarat chief minister and the BJP in opposition had stalled GST in Parliament,” Sharma said.
He also attacked Modi for comparing the incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur where over 60 children died in a state-run hospital with other natural calamities “in a very trivial manner”.
Sharma said the Prime Minister talked about the surgical strike which had taken place almost a year ago and since then ceasefire violations and attacks from across the border were repeatedly taking place in the restive state. “The situation there has been allowed to drift and deteriorate … Kashmir is a matter of national concern.,” he said.
On Modi’s claims about his government’s fight against corruption, Sharma questioned the delay in the appointment of Lokpal. Sharma said Modi’s promise of curbing black money “remains a sham” and that his government has “promoted black money hoarding” and promoted “crony capitalism”. Kashmiri leaders saw cautious hope in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach on Tuesday, but the common people appeared to be much less impressed.
Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq welcomed the Prime Minister’s comment.
“Welcome @narendramodi also believes ‘Goli&gaali will not help resolve Kashmir’ if insaniyat &insaaf replace them Resolution can become a Reality,” he tweeted.
However, residents of Kashmir said Prime Minister’s statement would have some weigh when “atrocities” on people would stop. “There is a curfew in whole valley and you are talking of love. What love?”, a social media wrote.
India and US will start a new 2-by-2 bilateral talks involving Indian external affairs and defence ministers and their American counterparts “to enhance peace across the IndoPacific region” and elevate strategy consultations.
The announcement came after a phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, who had called to congratulate the Indian leader on the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence. This was their fourth phone conversation since Trump’s election last November.
“The leaders resolved to enhance peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region by establishing a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue that will elevate their strategic consultations,” the White House said in a statement early on Tuesday morning.
The White House also announced the first shipment of American crude oil to India, which, it said will occur from Texas this month, “pledging that the United States would continue to be a reliable, long-term supplier of energy”. Modi thanked Trump, the statement further said, for “his strong leadership uniting the world against the North Korean menace”.
The two ministers in the new 2-by-2 dialogue will be, according to officials who spoke only on background, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Arun Jaitley and their American counterparts Rex Tillerson and James Mattis.
This 2-by-2 will replace the earlier 2-by-2 that the external affairs minister and commerce minister had with their American counterparts as part of the strategic and commercial bilateral dialogue.