New Delhi: Voicing disappointment with the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, Congress on Tuesday said the Narendra Modi government had failed to fulfill its promises and its stint was marked by "RSS ka saath, BJP ka vikas".
Addressing a joint press conference, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge parodied the Prime Minister's slogan of "sabka saath, sabka vikas" (together will all, development for all), made during general elections, and said his tenure had seen the government only caring for the benefit of RSS and BJP.
Modi's actions have led to "RSS ka saath, BJP ka vikas", they said.
"If you find fault with the President's address, it does not mean you find fault with the President, it is the government with which you are finding fault and are disappointed with.
"The President's address talks about 'sabka saath, sabka vikas'. This was a slogan coined by the Prime Minister ahead of elections to seek votes, which he did not implement. He instead brought about 'RSS ka saath, BJP ka vikas' and no section of society is happy today," Azad said.
He said all promises made to farmers, labourers, youth, dalits and minorities have remained unfulfilled, and all sections feel neglected, while unemployment has increased.
Azad also said even though his party supported the "surgical strikes", ceasefire violations along the borter with Pakistan have risen ever since, leading to death of a large number of soldiers.
"The government should clarify on this," he demanded.
"The past year has not been good for economy and along the border," he said.
Claiming that whatever government said on demonetisation was proved wrong and the money scrapped had come back into the system almost in entirety, he demanded an explanation from the government as to why Rs 15,000-20,000 crore was spent on remonetisation.
Kharge said the government had not fulfilled any of the promises made to people. The Modi government promised two crore jobs a year but created 1.7 lakh, he said.
"They should tell the physical targets achieved against the economic targets. The farmers are unhappy and so are other sections of society and they (the government) are still not bothered," he said.
Both Kharge and Azad said the Congress wanted discussions in Parliament on demonetisation, ceasefire violations along the border as well as "erosion" of autonomy of institutions like RBI, CBI and NITI Aayog. They said the matter will be taken up during the meetings of business advisory committees of both Houses.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel took to twitter to castigate the government over the Presidential address.
"The President's address is disappointing and doesn't address any real challenges. It is merely a collection of government's failed promises."
"Did the President's address mention anything about data on demonetisation, failure to create new jobs, rail safety?"
"One year after launching Startup & Standup India funding for startups fell by 42.7 pc," Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said in a series of tweets.
