CPM moves ‘69 amendments’ to President’s address, 1 on JNU row

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“That at the end of the motion, the following be added — ‘but regret that there is no mention in the address about the serious situation in the central institutions of higher education with specific reference to JNU, Hyderabad Central University and IIT campus’,” read the first amendment by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

The second amendment is to insert a line that there is no mention about the “growing intolerance manifesting the violence and spread of communal polarisation in the country.”

The amendment that was carried last year was to insert a line on the failure of the government to curb high-level corruption and bring back black money.

On Tuesday, Yechury and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi slammed the President’s speech for not mentioning unrest in universities. “I heard the President’s address in Parliament. He spoke about the government’s achievement, but nothing on Rohith issue, and what’s happening in the universities,” said Rahul.

Interestingly, Yechury, through his amendments, is also seeking insertion of the “recent attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot which is raising various queries on the security lapses in our country”, along with a mention of failure to curb price rise, high incidence of suicides among Dalit students pointing to continuing discrimination and attack on journalists in Delhi.

“It was a long speech. It was a big address covering everything except major issues like price rise, farmers’ suicides, JNU agitation, Jat stir and many more such serious things…Misuse of sedition clauses, border issues, Hyderabad incident…, nothing was mentioned. The President’s speech did not reflect any of these issues,” said Yechury.

Senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar said the President’s address was “deafeningly silent on pressing issues and demonstrates the political and moral bankruptcy of the Modi government.”

“As a statement of the government’s policies for the country, the President’s address is extremely disappointing. It is bereft of vision and hope for a people reeling under the most widespread disaffection witnessed in the country thus far. In a situation where all citizens feel enraged by the frontal assault on all our cherished libertarian and egalitarian values, the address does not even refer to the urgent challenges that we face as a nation… At a time when the nation is in tumult and citizens feel alienated, the least that was expected was for the government to hold out hope for a distraught nation,” said Kumar.