Team Herald
BAMBOLIM: Vice-President of India Venkaiah Naidu, on Saturday, suggested concurrent elections all over the country right from Parliament to Panchayats, to be held within a month.
While addressing the gathering at the India Idea’s Conclave 2017 in Goa, he said, “I totally feel the need for elections together all over the country right from Parliament to Panchayat which should be wrapped up within a month. Recently it has become a regular activity for political parties to have three point programme, that is election, selection and corruption,” said Naidu while addressing the gathering at the India Idea’s Conclave 2017.
“There have to be simultaneous elections right from Parliament to Panchayat, everything should be completed within one month and for this to happen we shall need a political consensus. Today as one round of elections is over, there is another round of elections in another State. So where is the state of mind for any politician to apply for growth and development?” Naidu said.
He added that that the legislature and parliament should also focus on constructive debates and rather than trying to know what is the record of this party or other, people will ask us what is the record of Parliament and we have to see that Parliament functions without disruption.
“The duty of the opposition is to corner the government and ask questions. But in Parliament if you want to contribute you can talk out and if you want to protest you can walk out. Let the government propose, the opposition oppose and let the House dispose, rather than having these disturbances. All political parties should ponder over these issues,” the Vice-President said while taking into account recent disruptions in the Parliament.
Speaking on terrorism, the Vice-President said that terrorism has no religion and that the Western countries earlier did not understand India’s pain because one of our neighbours was aiding, funding and training terrorists and trying to destabilise our economy.
“We want to have friendly relations with all countries, including Pakistan, but we cannot allow them to interfere in the internal affairs of our country and try to create tension,” Naidu added.
Speaking on agriculture, he emphasised on the need for greater focus to ensure that the income of farmers doubles in the coming years.
“Unless the farmer is assured of proper remuneration and encouraged to diversify crop cultivation, the agriculture sector will face problems,” Naidu said. He added that a country of 130 crore cannot survive on imported food security.
The Vice-President said, “India is set to become the fastest growing large economy again. Only the other day, the UN’s World Economic Situation Report projected India’s GDP to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 7.4 per cent in 2019. It said that the outlook for India remained largely positive, underpinned by robust private consumption and public investment as also due to the ongoing structural reforms,” Naidu added.
