Congress attacks govt on communalism, national security

Attacking the government for its silence over communal incidents, the opposition on Monday also accused the NDA of neglecting national security and failing to stop public money going to foreign telecom firms.

The main opposition Congress charged the government of making inadequate allocation in the Budget for the defence sector at a time when the country is facing up to cyber attacks and those like China allocate thrice more to the sector than India.  Participating in a debate on the motion to thank the President at the Rajya Sabha, Congress member Ashwani Kumar said: “For the last few months, incidents of communal violence has flared up in several states but nothing has been done...I am happy that the prime minister made a statement on it but it took him nine months to do so.”

He said it was unfortunate that the issue was not highlighted in the President’s speech and “such blots continue to weaken the country.”