New Delhi: Flagging malnutrition, poverty, infant mortality and the high unemployment rates in the country, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday said that while the Modi Government was raising the issue of revocation of Article 370 for electoral gains it was not bothered about these human index parameters.
“You only remember Article 370 but you do not keep in mind your constitutional duties. Around 93 per cent children are not getting proper nutrition and your entire focus is on Article 370,” Mr Sibal said addressing the media.
Quoting Article 47 of the Constitution, the Rajya Sabha member questioned as to what Mr Modi had done for its implementation.
Article 47 states that raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living and improving public health is the duty of the state.
“You are doing this because of the Assembly polls... You do not know about the people who are suffering,” he said on Mr Modi and home minister Amit Shah raised the issue of abrogation of Article 370 again and again while campaigning.
He questioned comments by the Prime Minister and Mr Shah that Jammu and Kashmir lagged in development because of Article 370.
Mr Sibal said poverty, infant mortality and unemployment rates, as well as gross enrolment ratio in higher education, was dismal in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
“These states did not have Article 370, but most of the corresponding figures of Jammu and Kashmir were way better”.
The senior lawyer also asked the PM to tell the people of Haryana that it was because of the Congress that Pakistan’s integral part was split from it. “This happened under the Congress rule. Praise the Congress, but you don’t have the guts to do that”.
He also cited the latest GDP growth projections by international agencies.
“Despite India’s GDP growth rate slipping to a six-year low of 5 per cent in the April-June quarter, the Modi government still insists that all is well with the country’s economy and that it remains among the fastest growing in the world”.
“But revised projections for India’s GDP growth rates this year alone indicate otherwise. Some analysts have dropped growth projections for 2019-20 from 7.5 per cent to just 6 per cent,” he added.
