Congress mulling privilege notice against PM Narendra Modi

Congress is contemplating a breach of privilege against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making “several false and misleading” statements in the Rajya Sabha yesterday.

NEW DELHI: Congress is contemplating a breach of privilege against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making “several false and misleading” statements in the Rajya Sabha yesterday like UPA copying programmes of the Vajpayee government

“If legally found admissible, why action will not be taken”, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said at the AICC briefing when asked whether the party was contemplating moving the Privileges Committee.

Singhvi, who is himself a member of the Upper House, said that the Prime Minister had “taken liberties with truth” and has made “several false and misleading” statements in the Rajya Sabha while claiming that Congress-led government had copied programmes of the first NDA government led by Vajpayee.

Citing some instances, he said that the idea, concept and schemes of Congress-led UPA started before 1998 when the NDA came to power for the first time.

He said the BJP had talked about a multi-purpose identity card way back in the 1999 manifesto along with a national register of citizens and had repeated it in its 2009 Manifesto.

But the Card which is now known as Aadhar became a reality after it was listed in the 2004 UPA Manifesto and the first tranche of the cards were handed over in May 2007.

“Is it fair for the Prime Minister to mislead the House? Is it not that he has been economical with truth?” he asked.

Besides, he said that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan may have been started by Vajpapyee government but it was “nothing but the District Primary Education Programme” started by the Congress government in 1993-94. He said later the Congress dispensation gave Constitutional entitlement to Right to education.

As regards Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, he said that the genesis of it was in Malhotra Committee report of 1994. A regulator was set up by government of Congress, but it was an interim regulator.

He said that though the Antyodaya Anna Yojana was started in Dec 2000, till the Congress came to power in 2004 many states had not even identified poor. He said that the National Food Security Act of 2013 gives a right to 2/3rd population.

“We would have excused if any other leader and not the PM had said this…..He has compared apples with oranges, gold with dirt”, Singhvi said.

Debunking Congress criticism that his government was repackaging UPA’s schemes, the Prime Minister had yesterday in the Rajya Sabha taken potshots at Congress saying how will they accept the role of somebody else in development, when they do not give credit to anybody else even for the freedom struggle.

Congress has time and again alleged that the NDA government led by Modi is a ‘copycat’ government and just renamed UPA’s schemes.