Dalit attacks to find mention in prez speech

The passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by Parliament, recent attacks on Dalits and instances of cow vigilantism are likely to figure in  President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to the nation on the eve of the 70th Independence Day on Sunday.

Mukherjee is likely to praise the efforts of both the government and the Opposition in reaching a consensus for Parliament to pass the country's key tax reform law in the just concluded monsoon session.

In his last Independence Day address, Mukherjee had lamented that Parliament had been converted into an arena of combat rather than debate, observing that institutions of democracy are under stress and “correctives must come from within.”

The president had made those comments against the backdrop of a washed out monsoon session of Parliament last year.