You are only a ‘name changer’, Azad mocks government policies

Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad sporting an unusual Gandhi cap on Monday ridiculed BJP President Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha for presenting the Modi government as a “game changer” while piloting a motion of thanks on the President’s address and asserted that it is only a “name changer”.

Participating in the debate on the motion as the first speaker from the Congress side, he said there are any number of the repackaged schemes as the BJP government’s own, including the flagship “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,” asserting that it is the same scheme that was launched by the UPA as the National Child Programme in 2008. He also ridiculed the government inventing a target year of 2022 for every scheme which it cannot implement during its five-year rule.

On the issue of triple talaq bill pending in the House that was referred by Shah as blockade of the government’s good measures, Azad said: “After dividing Shias and Sunnis, you are now dividing husband and wife. The Congress opposes triple talaq and supports a law to ban it but we do not support criminalising it.”

He lamented the highest number of ceasefire violations and Indian soldiers’’ deaths during the Modi government. “Opposition and all political parties are with the government on Jammu and Kashmir, but the situation in the state is the worse than it has been in 70 years.” Taking a jibe at the government’s initiatives like Skill India and Start-up India, Azad said: “Credit goes to the BJP and its government for creating a record for employment in 2017 by not creating a single job.”

Targeting the government over price rise, Azad said: “The price of the (cooking gas) cylinder, which used to be Rs 350 during our rule, is over Rs 800 today.