NEW DELHI, Feb 4: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose on Tuesday alleged that India is facing an acute governance deficit under the BJP-led NDA government, which she claimed was disconnected from reality and believed in the policy of ‘minimum government maximum publicity’.
Participating in the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, she asked why the government was reluctant to share the number of deaths in the stampede at Maha Kumbh, while stating that the government does not know how to tackle the catastrophe of unemployment, the crisis of price rise and the challenge of security in Manipur.
Alleging that it is not guided by a national motto or the dictum of ‘Satyameva Jayate’, Ghose said, “This government lives in imagined reality. All it wants is media publicity and to set up a media narrative. This is precisely why India today faces an acute governance deficit.”
Related Posts:
She further said, “This government came to power with the slogan of minimum government maximum governance, instead today we have a government which is minimum government maximum publicity.”
Citing the example of the “publicity blitz and event management” at this year’s Maha Kumbh, she said it appears that there has not been a Kumbh before and accused the government of hiding the number of deaths in the stampede at the gathering.
“Why is the BJP government reluctant to share the number of deaths? Instead of showing remorse, instead of sowing accountability, the government’s PR machine is going on and on and on..,” she said.
Quoting investigative journalists, she said they have reported far higher numbers of deaths than the government figures and “more and more evidence is emerging (that) it is not just one stampede, there are two stampedes, maybe three stampedes”.
She also lashed out at the VIP culture at the Kumbh, and said reports are stating that it was responsible for the stampede, as VIPs drove up to the ghats in their cars and made the public walk, while routes were closed for common pilgrims who have to wait and then became restless.
“The government came to power saying it will end this VIP culture but today this is the government for the VIP, of the VIP and by the VIP,” Ghose said.
If a similar stampede were to happen at the Gangasagar mela in West Bengal where “one crore come every year and not a single incident” is reported, she said there would have been at least a dozen fact-finding missions.
Taking a dig at the government’s ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas’ slogan, she asked, “Today India is called the Billionaire Raj. The top 1 per cent controls 40 per cent of the national wealth, the bottom 50 per cent only have 3 per cent. Is that ‘sabka vikas ya kuch khas logon ke liye vikas’.”
She asked where is “sabka saath when the prime minister meets celebrities but does not meet farmers, when opposition is not taken into confidence and bulldozes legislations in Parliament and when the prime minister has not held a single press conference?”
Ghose also accused the government of muzzling “voices of those who speak truth” and stated that in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index India has slipped to 159 out of 180.
Stating that lakhs of Indians are giving up Indian citizenship, exam paper leaks are destroying the future of youth and middle class dreams are also being crushed, she said “If the government was ready to admit its mistake, for an honest appraisal of its own work it would recognise the suffering of the people but all we have is the constant PR drumbeat.”
Ghose asked, “Is this ‘Amrit Kal’ where free speech lives in fear, where entrepreneurs are suffocated because of impending possible raids by agencies, where the opposition parties are always in a state of fear that the constitutional agencies will be weaponised against them?”
Taking part in the discussion, Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) said all VIP visits in any place of worship must be banned.
Raising the issue of stampede at Maha Kumbh, he said there must be dignity in death.
He also said the UGC draft regulation is “going to be an obituary for the university system that exists today”.
“It is anti-teacher, anti-university, anti-federalism and anti-student,” Jha said, wondering if it was a plan to privatise education completely.
Participating in the discussion, KR Suresh Reddy (BRS) reiterated the need to bring peace in Manipur, and tighten legislations for anti-defection and speedy resolution of interstate water disputes by various tribunals. (PTI)
