Lok Sabha: Opposition MP's submit over 200 amendments to motion of thanks on President’s speech

New Delhi: As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi warned against China, at least three Opposition MPs in Lok Sabha have submitted amendments to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s speech expressing regret over not mentioning growing influence of China among India’s neighbours, incursions and building a dam in Tibet.

Opposition MPs have submitted over 200 amendments in Lok Sabha to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s speech over not mentioning price rise, unemployment, Adani Group without mentioning the conglomerate and administrative lapses that led to Maha Kumbh stampede among other things in the address.

MPs like Manickam Tagore and Hibi Eden (Congress), Saugata Ray (Trinamool Congress), K Radhakrishnan (CPIM), NK Premachandran (RSP), Pappu Yadav (Independent) and T Sumathy (DMK) submitted multiple amendments to the speech. With the ruling NDA having the numbers, the amendments are likely to be defeated.

Around two dozen amendments are on the issues of unemployment and price rise while Manipur ethnic violence, MGNREGA and Minimum Support Price for crops too found interest among MPs who in their amendments “regretted” its absence in the President’s speech.

Trinamool’s Ray wants the motion to “regret” the omission of any mention about “measures countering the influence of China in neighbouring countries” in the address while RJD’s Sudhakar Singh is objecting to absence of “cChallenges posed to the national security due to Chinese aggression in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh borders”.

Congress’ Pradyut Bordoloi has raised the absence of “China’s plans to build the world’s largest hydroelectric dam across Brahmaputra river in Tibet, which “threatens the existence and culture of the north-east and would allow China to control the flow of the river” into India.

There were at least two amendments on Adani Group without mentioning it by four CPI(M) and one Congress MP. CPI(M)’s Radhakrishnan, Amra Ram, Sachithanantham R and S Venkatesan seek to regret the omission about the “bribery allegations and favouritism against an Indian conglomerate”.

One of the amendments submitted by Congress MP Shafi Parambil is about the alleged “promotion of crony capitalism, including providing undue support to a big conglomerate of the country.

Four CPI(M) MPs and Congress’ VK Sreekandan have submitted amendments on the “administrative mismanagement” that led to the stampede in Maha Kumbh and the subsequent loss of lives.

Senior Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor has submitted an amendment on the issue of providing legal protection for work-life balance and limiting working hours, the absence of which is negatively affecting the physical and mental well-being of the youth.

RSP MP NK Premachandran has submitted ten amendments, including those on the omissions in the speech like a special package for women empowerment and sustainable development and programme for increasing food production.

Two DMK MPs TM Selvaganapathi and DM Kathir Anand’s amendments deal with the omission of mention of the recent findings by experts that the Iron Age started in Tamil Nadu 5,300 years ago.

A special package for Bihar, federalism, NEET, women’s quota and economic slowdown were also among the amendments submitted by the Opposition MPs.