Michael Vaz
It is nothing new that quite often the debates in Parliament are not just retaliatory but fuming with vengeance and at times the tongue is let loose beyond control and the erring person nay parliamentarian is made to withdraw and apologise. On Wednesday the Parliament was thankfully shorn of such gimmicks but there was something exceptional in the Prime Minister’s reply to the President’s address in the Parliament though frequented by the opposition’s routine mocking.
Many of us might have observed at least the summary of that great oration aired by some of the TV channels notably the ABP News in the night. If someone wanted to know what it is to ‘pay in the same coin’ nothing perhaps would have been apt than to witness this deliberation. The Prime Minister who is often rebuked for bring silent spoke for hours in both the Upper and the Lower Houses of the temple of democracy and touched or retaliated on the issues that are frequently raked up by the opposition. It is felt expedient to touch on just three of those points elaborated upon by Modi, namely stifling of democracy, unemployment problem and blockage of the triple talaq bill to highlight the great moment.
Whereas it has become a habitual issue with the Congress to attack BJP for subverting democracy, Modi reminded the House that it was during the Congress regime that India suffered the worst period of the emergency era that shattered man’s freedom in our esteemed democratic setup. He also unleashed how during the Congress rule, Article 356 of the Constitution was invoked not less than 90 times to dismiss the opposition governments in the states.
As regards the opposition’s repeated claim that the NDA had not fulfilled the assurance of creating a crore of jobs, Modi’s cutting jibe was that the four non-BJP ruled states namely, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha and Karnataka have asserted that they have already given jobs to close to one crore people, which in itself defeats their claim.
Equally interesting was Modi’s attack on the Congress for impeding the passage of the triple talaq bill. Congress had argued that if the man is jailed for divorcing his wife through instant talaq then who will support his family. Modi was quick to hit back for in that case there should not be penal provision seeking imprisonment on the earning member for any crime. In my opinion it was a great manifestation of oratory skills putting everyone in place.
