Modi New Year Eve Speech Lacks Substance: Congress

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy described Prime Minister Narendra Modi's New Year speech as a complete disappointment, and claimed that it was full in rhetoric and less in substance.

Addressing a massive public meeting in Miryalguda on Sunday, the TPCC chief said that people had lots of expectations from Modi's Saturday speech as it was delivered at the end of the 50-day deadline set by him.

"The common man is expecting the government to lift all withdrawal restrictions. However, the speech was more of rhetoric and poetry than substance," he claimed.

Reddy said that crores of people who had been standing in long queues outside banks and ATMs expected that the Prime Minister would offer a solution to their problems. "Instead of permitting people to withdraw their own hard earned money from their bank accounts without any limitations, the Prime Minister turned a preacher. He did not speak a single word on black money nor did he give figures on how much of it has been unearthed by demonetization. He did not even apologize for those killed standing in serpentine queues. He tried to divert from the main issue and instead showed us a teaser of the next budget speech," he said.

The TPCC chief said that the Prime Minister and other BJP leaders must reply to the Citizen's Charter of Demands presented by AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. He said that the PM should specify the actions taken by the Central government to help people recover from the damages done by demonetization.

Speaking of alternative sops, he demanded that the Centre deposit Rs. 25,000 deposited in the accounts of at least one woman belonging to each BPL family as compensation for the immense suffering caused to women due to demonetisation. He also demanded that the government organize a special drive to identify and register all those who have lost their jobs post November 8, 2016, and provide them with compensation at the applicable minimum wage rate for a time period extending up to March 31, 2017.

Congress Legislature Party leader K Jana Reddy and other senior leaders also addressed the public meeting.