Govt dividing people, diverting attention from key issues through CAA-NPR-NRC: CPI MP

CPI leader Binoy Viswam on Thursday accused the government of dividing the people on religious lines and trying to divert attention from its failures through CAA, NPR and NRC.

"They want to divide the people of India. For that, they want to do away with the Constitution....the focal point is to attack the Constitution from within," Viswam said while participating in a debate on the Motion of Thanks on President's Address.

He told the House that the government had failed on its promises and wanted to divert the attention through the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

He said, "I can only disagree and object to the Motion of Thanks to President's Address. Sometime we may feel pity for the President...he was forced by the government to say all those matters which were not facts."

"The address was telling that everything was ok with the country but everybody know that the country is going through difficult times," he said.

He referred to the BJP's promise of providing two crore jobs every year and said the country is facing the highest rate of unemployment in last 45 years.

About the government's announcement on India becoming a USD 5 trillion economy, he said, "It is the hallmark of their series of promises. I can tell you emphatically that 5 trillion dollar (economy) will remain a dream. This government can never fulfil that promise."

He lamented that the government is trying to divide the people of the country because they have failed on all fronts, including the economy.

"Demonetisation was termed as big attack on black money...Now no speeches of Prime Minister, President or minister mention about black money," he said.

"I ask BJP officials to press the Prime Minister to say a single sentence of demonetisation. Black money is there. Demonetisation failed," he added.

Participating in the debate, YSR Congress Party member Vijayasai Reddy V demanded special category status for Andhra Pradesh.

The government has been claiming that Finance Commissions are not giving special category status to any state, but the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions have clearly stated in their reports that it was in the government's domain, Reddy said.

BJP members Ramkumar Verma and Narayan Rane also participated in the debate.