The NDA government is “fearful of the future” and it “mistrusts the present”, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra told the Lok Sabha Thursday as she tore into the BJP-led NDA government over issues ranging from the country's pluralistic character to the rejection of tableaux from several states for this year’s Republic Day parade. While President Ram Nath Kovind, in his opening address for the Budget Session of Parliament, spoke about freedom fighters, it was just “lip service”, she said. Participating in the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address, Moitra referred to the government's recent announcement of installing a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose beneath the canopy at India Gate and asked if the freedom fighter would have approved of the Haridwar Dharam Sansad, in which hate speeches were allegedly made. “This government wants to alter history. They are fearful of the future and they mistrust the present. The President, early on in his address, speaks about freedom fighters who secured India’s rights but this is just lip service,” the Trinamool Congress lawmaker said in Lok Sabha. Stating that the government was “fearful” of a nation that is “comfortable in its own skin”, Moitra said that it was time for the people to save the country. As Moitra continued with her fiery speech, Lok Sabha chair Rama Devi asked the TMC to calm down and speak with “less anger”. Moitra said that while the government talks of freedom fighters, but in reality, recalling India’s past - which is one of plurality and secularism - makes the BJP government insecure. Critical of the rejection of the Republic Day tableaux of West Bengal, which featured Netaji, Moitra alleged that the government has “reinvented” Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a freedom fighter. The TMC-led West Bengal government was among at least three states that expressed disappointed over their state tableaux not being chosen for the Republic Day parade. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, at the time, said that the selection of tableaux was done according to the norms.
