New Delhi: Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address on February 4.
Sharing details of the marathon debate beginning today, he said that Sarbananda Sonowal will initiate the discussion and it will see at least five noted speakers from the BJP joining the discourse today. He also slammed the Opposition for persistent negative mindset and refusing to acknowledge the positive aspects of the Union Budget.
“Today we have five speakers from the BJP because the total discussion time is 18 hours spread over three days. Keeping this in mind, the NDA will get around 55 per cent of the time. The motion will be moved by Sarbananda Sonowal and seconded by Tejasvi Surya. After that, the Leader of the Opposition will speak. The Prime Minister will reply on February 4 evening,” Rijiju said.
He added that the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address will be followed by an extensive debate on the Union Budget.
“Today there is a motion of thanks to the President’s address; discussion on it is scheduled for three days for 18 hours. After that, the budget will be discussed,” the minister said.
Taking a sharp dig at the opposition, Rijiju accused it of deliberately ignoring the achievements highlighted in the budget.
“The opposition is not willing to acknowledge the positive aspects of the budget. I can’t fix it. The whole world is watching India’s budget today. It is no longer just for Indians, people across the world also look at India’s budget,” he said.
Comparing the current government’s economic approach with the previous UPA regime, Rijiju said there has been a massive jump in capital expenditure.
“If you compare it with the time of the UPA government, there is a huge jump in capital expenditure. Now it is around Rs 12.5 lakh crore,” he said.
He further accused the Congress of misleading people with what he called a “negative mentality” on the budget.
“About the budget, the Congress mentality is so negative that they are misleading people. The world knows India is rapidly progressing economically. This is not something to lie about,” Rijiju said.
Highlighting India’s growing global economic stature, he said, “The whole world wants to sign free trade agreements with India. Earlier, we did not export mobile phones, but now we are progressing at another level. These are the things the opposition refuses to see.”
(IANS)
