Opp’s targets Govt over black money, seeks white paper on Panama, Pandora

“As many as 28 political parties have written to the Election Commission, raising doubts over the EVMs,” he said, adding, “Is the EC objective? It could not find time to meet 28 parties in the last six months.”

CPI(M) MP John Brittas accused the BJP of “using Lord Ram” for political gains. The Left MP said the PM should stick to his duties and go to Manipur. “The primary responsibility of the PM is to give ‘pran’ to citizens, not the Gods. He should obviously stick to his duties… he should go to Manipur and conduct a ‘Pran Pratishtha’ for citizens,” he said.

TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray also hit out at the government over unemployment and income inequality. He said he counted the words “Viksit Bharat” were mentioned at least six times and “amrit”, including in “Amrit Kaal”, about 10 times in the President’s address. “It is a make-believe situation,” he said.

He said the President said the government had given jobs to “lakhs of youth” but did not mention the exact numbers. “Should we take it as another jumla,” he asked.

Ray said the President cited NITI Aayog to state that about 25 crore people had been lifted out of poverty in the past decade. “A series of lofty claims have been made in this report card of the government to carry out a disinformation campaign on the eve of Lok Sabha elections.”

Another TMC MP, Nadimul Haque, accused the government of “federal terrorism” and said, “In the states where you can’t win democratically, you deliberately starve them of funds.”

Haque also demanded the government to bring out a white paper on black money, with regards to the Pandora, Panama and Paradise papers (as reported by The Indian Express in collaboration with ICIJ). “The government promised that black money will be recovered from tax havens abroad. In the Panama, Pandora and Paradise leaks, names of thousands of rich Indians were revealed, who had parked black money in different tax havens. I demand a white paper from the government on this issue,” he said.

DMK MP Tiruchi Siva, too, hit out at the government over its record on federalism. “This government is anti-federal, anti-secular, anti-poor, pro-rich. It is anti-women, anti-MSME, anti-CPSUs, pro-corporates, anti-farmers and anti-labour, pro-Centre and anti-regional… There is a blatant attempt to undermine regional parties and local issues,” he said.