It seems the no-confidence motion brought by the opposition against prime minister Modi has badly backfired. Speaking about the no-confidence motion, prime minister Modi literally ripped apart the opposition and especially, the Congress. His speech was comprehensive in the sense that the prime minister spoke on almost all burning issues and wild allegations made by the opposition against the Modi government. Throughout his speech, a sense of unease prevailed among the opposition parties and prime minister Modi literally mortified them on the floor of the House. During his speech prime minister debunked several myths and also spoke with intensity on several issues. Some of the key highlights of his speech are :
Unleashing a scathing attack on the Congress, prime minister Modi stated that some of the countries that gained independence after us have grown better than us. He further stated that while the Congress divided the country, but the nation was standing with the Congress. He then also debunked the myth that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who brought democracy to India as claimed by the Congress. He said that for decades, one party devoted all their energies to serving one family. The interests of the nation were overlooked just for the interests of one family, he added. “How can one of the leaders say India got democracy due to Pandit Nehru and the Congress Party”, he asked. “Is this their reading of India’s history, what arrogance is this?”, he added. He advised the Congress to take a look at India’s rich history. Prime minister Modi made it clear that India’s rich democratic tradition date back centuries ago and that democracy is integral to India’s culture. Later, in his speech the prime minister demolished the myth of the Congress being a democratic party by stating that how Article 356 of the Constitution of India was misused by the Congress right after independence to bring down legitimately elected state governments.
Ridiculing the opposition over the no-confidence motion, prime minister Modi went after the opposition about how it does not have confidence even in reputed organisations and constitutional institutions. He also stated that India has improved considerable as far as ‘Ease of doing Business’ rankings are concerned. Prime minister Modi also gave account of several schemes such as LED distribution, farm insurance scheme, MUDRA scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana, etc. that have brought about a sea change in India. He also stated that India’s unprecedented economic growth was being acknowledged around the globe but the opposition has no confidence even in the world economic agencies. He then went ahead with the most serious of barbs and thundered how the Congress has no confidence even in the Chief Justice of India, the Election Commission of India and the EVMs. This is so because a few people used to think that they have special rights over the administrative apparatus.
Prime minister Modi then stated that the government has waged war against corruption and financial impropriety. Prime minister Modi also also mounted a massive assault on Congress president Rahul Gandhi with reference to the hilarious speech that the Congress President had given earlier yesterday. Prime minister Modi came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi for lying on the floor of the House about the Rafale deal with absolutely no evidence to back up his wild allegations. This had compelled the governments of both India and France to issue a clarification and condemn his irresponsible remarks. Prime minister Modi appealed to the members of the opposition to refrain from making such wild, unsubstantiated allegations. He also went hammer and tongs after the Congress for making remarks about the Doklam stand-off without any knowledge on the issue. The Prime Minister also said that while the nation’s army was fighting in Doklam but still Rahul Gandhi preferred to meet the Chinese officials.
Prime minister Modi also expressed dismay at how surgical strikes were labelled ‘Jumla strike’ by the Congress, thereby insulting every soldier that serves this nation with his blood and sweat. He urged the opposition not to politicize the respected forces and attack the prime minister instead of hurting the emotions of the India’s soldiers.
However, the moment that must have made the entire opposition cringe was when prime minister Modi took a barb at Rahul Gandhi’s claim of being Lord Shiva’s devotee. Prime minister Modi replied that he is also a devotee of Lord Shiva and that he prays to the God and to 125 crore people of India to give you (Gandhi and the Congress) the strength to bring a no-confidence motion in 2024, thereby, making it clear that the Congress and the opposition is in for a rout in the upcoming 2019 general elections. Replying to Rahul Gandhi’s laughable charge that the prime minister can’t look him in the eye, prime minister Modi took it as an opportunity to expose the arrogance in Gandhi’s statement. Prime minister Modi made it clear that coming from a humble background he cannot obviously look in the eyes of the Gandhi scion. He recollected what the Gandhi family did to the greatest of leaders who dared to look in the eyes of “the family”.
To Congress’ utmost shock and horror, the prime minister started taking names of the leaders who had been insulted by the Gandhi family including Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Morarji Desai, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar and even the former president of India, Pranab Mukherjee. This squarely exposed the modus operandi of the Congress. Prime minister Modi also made it clear that the Congress is feeling the heat because it has been out of power and that its strategy is to either remain in power or destabilise the nation by spreading lies when out of power. Rahul Gandhi seemed particularly uneasy by prime minister Modi’s unforgiving reply but more was to come. Prime minister Modi finally talked about Rahul Gandhi’s misconduct of crossing over to prime minister Modi’s seat in the Parliament and forcibly hugging him. Prime minister Modi stated that the trust vote had not even been initiated but Rahul Gandhi was restless and desperate asking prime minister Modi to give up and stand up. He made it clear that Rahul Gandhi has no power to do so and that he is sitting there on account of electoral support and only the electorate can force him to evict from there.
This was undoubtedly one of the most frank and hard-hitting speeches that prime minister Modi gave on the floor of the House ever since he assumed office. He did not mince any words and it seems that the no-confidence motion has done the opposition more harm than good for it only gave an opportunity to the prime minister to come down heavily on the opposition in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.