The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday termed Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's Independence Day speech as "disappointing" and lacking
direction on issues facing the country, while Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi said he should have specified the policy on infiltration
from Bangladesh.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said that prime minister's speech failed to inspire people.
"It
was a disappointing speech... PM's speech was completely listless and a
speech which did not instil new confidence in the nation. The speech
did not give any direction on the issues the nation and the people of
the country are facing - price rise, inflation, corruption, black money,
slowing economy, monsoon deficit and drought. It did not address any of
these issues," he said.
Speaking in Junagadh in Gujarat, Modi
said people wanted to know government's policy towards infiltration from
Bangladesh, contending that this was becoming an issue of concern.
Modi
also accused the prime minister of dual standards about the ethnic
violence in Assam and subsequent violence during a protest rally in
Mumbai.
"Why were you silent on Mumbai," Modi said referring to prime minister's speech.
He said he heard the speech as a common man and was and was "disappointed".
"I
saw the speech not as a CM but as a common man and found only
disappointment in it...What happened to the promises of cheap interest
rates for the middle class people to build houses or cheap education
loans? If you make promises but don't keep them, how do you expect the
people of India to believe you," he said.
BJP leader L. K. Advani
also raised the issue of ethnic violence in Assam and called upon prime
minister to ensure rehabilitation of the displaced people .
"The
prime minister, who is elected from Assam, should ensure that the
people displaced in the violence are rehabilitated soon," he said.
BJP
president Nitin Gadkari, who unfurled the tricolour at the party's
office in Ahmedabad, said said that prime minister had talked of
returning to high growth path but it seemed difficult.
