Oppn hits out at govt in House on price rise
The Congress on Monday held the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government responsible for the price rise, saying its decisions have hit hard 25 crore households in the country and widened the divide between the rich and the poor.
Initiating a debate on the issue of the price rise in Lok Sabha, Congress member Manish Tewari alleged that savings, investment, production, consumption and employment, the five pillars of the economy, have been blown away due to the wrong policies of the Union government. “During the UPA regime, 27 crore people were brought above the poverty line. Then it was learnt from a report, which was made public in 2021, that as many as 23 crore people are once again below the poverty line, “he said.
The issue will also be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
On Monday, both the Houses of the Parliament witnessed two repeated adjournments over ruckus created by Opposition leaders during the debate on price rise and other various issues, including the arrest of Shiv Sena lawmaker Sanjay Raut by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, drawing criticism by the ruling party members over the conduct in the Parliament the during the monsoon session.
The Lower House was adjourned after the Opposition demanded the suspension of four Congress lawmakers be revoked. In Rajya Sabha, the Opposition continued sloganeering and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded a discussion over price rise. To this, Bhubaneswar Kalita, presiding in the Chair, responded that the matter would be taken up Tuesday.
In the Lok Sabha, Tewari said the number of billionaires in India increased from 100 to 142 in these years, the income of those in the lower strata has been decreasing day by day, he said. He said it is “unfortunate” that 77% of the country’s wealth is in the hands of one percent of the population and the wealth of the 92 most rich persons in India put together is equal to that of 55 crore Indians. “There can’t be bigger inequality than this in our country,” he saidThe situations arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic would be a factor leading to the current economic scenario but the country’s economy had already started weakening with the government’s decision to demonetise high-value currency notes on November 8, 2016, he charged. After the note ban, the government brought in GST implementation which hit at least 2.30 lakh small industries. “This note ban and GST not just impacted medium and small scale industries but employment also,” he said. To join the league of the developed countries, about two third of a country’s eligible population should have employment. “But, in India, just about 40 crore people have jobs today,” Tewari said.
To become a developed country, the number of people employed in the country has to increase to 84 crore. “But this government, unfortunately, doesn’t have any strategy for this,” he charged.