Rahul Gandhi accuses government of slow manufacturing growth, Kharge raises farmers' issues; BJP leaders hit back

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the opposition attack in Lok Sabha stating that production is foundation of India's national security and is key to job creation, he said that Modi government's 'Make In India' initiative has failed to revive it and share of manufacturing in GDP has come down from 15.3 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 12.6 per cent, which is lowest in the past 60 years.

BJP members said India was making fast progress under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alleged that Congress tenures in office have been marked by scams.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said "Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel died in 1950 but he was given Bharat Ratna in 1991.

"All the 550 princely states except one were handled by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Only one princely state, Kashmir was handled by Jawaharlal Nehru and PM Modi had to come to take care of it and today elections are taking place there," he said in Lok Sabha.

Prasad said India was among the weak economies before 2014 but under able leadership of PM Modi, India has emerged as the fifth-largest economy and is poised to be the third-largest in a few years.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O' Brien said "a creaky, shaky NDA coalition government" has written the script of President Droupadi Murmu's address to the joint sitting of two Houses.

"I am immensely proud as an Indian to have listened to the President, who is a woman. I am immensely proud as an Indian to have heard the Finance Minister, who is a woman. I am immensely proud that the All India Trinamool Congress was founded 28 years ago by a self-made woman. And talking about women... The BJP, for all its big talk, has 13% women MPs. AITC 39%," he said in Rajya Sabha.

He said 35 per cent of ministerial positions in the Bengal government are held by women.

The Trinamool Congress leader used names and descriptions of Hindi films over several decades to drive home his point. "Scripts! Indian films and their SCRIPTS have played a significant role in telling the story of India," he said.

In his speech, Rahul Gandhi pitched for caste census and said applying AI to it will lead a lot of possibilities.

Gandhi, who spoke in detail on the need of boosting manufacturing, spoke about competition from China and said India has an opportunity with the revolution in energy and mobility.

He said China has been working on batteries, robots, motors, optics for the last ten-years, and it has at least a ten-year lead on India in this space.

"As the world stands on the brink of a technological and economic revolution, India needs a new vision for growth, production, and participation--one that directly addresses our two biggest challenges: the job crisis and the lack of opportunity for 90 per cent of Indians," Gandhi posted on X later.

"Jobs come from production, which Make In India has failed to revive. But we have an opportunity with the revolution in energy and mobility - with renewable energy, batteries, electric motors and optics, and AI to bring these together. India must master a central role in this revolution, and boost production to give our youth hope for the future," he said.

"Although China is 10 years ahead, we can catch up - with the right vision. An INDIA government would realign education, enlist experts, widely spread finance, and align our trade and foreign policies. Production is also the foundation of our national security. In a world where wars are not fought between armies but between industrial systems, our dependence on Chinese imports like motors and batteries puts us at risk," he added.

Gandhi said India is fighting against inequality that is increasing social tensions by excluding the 90 per cent.

"We must conduct a caste census to understand where Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs and minorities stand today; and with the help of AI understand how best to ensure they have a fair share in the nation's wealth and opportunities. It is only these two tracks in parallel - production and participation - which will create a robust growth story for India and a bright future for all our youth," he said.

Slamming the government over President's address, Gandhi in his speech said it was the same laundry list of things that the government has done.

He said there are basically four technologies that are driving this entire change in mobility, electric motors, batteries, optics and then on top of one can apply AI.

Gandhi said the question came to his mind is "what type of address would a INDIA gathbandhan government deliver, how would that address be different than the address".

"And so today I would like to lay out some dimensions of what an alternative address would look like, what the INDIA gathbandhan would probably focus on and where we would lay emphasis."

"A universal problem that we have faced is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment. No! neither the UPA government nor today's NDA government has given a clear-cut answer to the youth of India about employment. I don't think anybody in this room will disagree with me," he said.

"Any country basically organises two things, you can organise consumption and then you can organise production. Modern way of saying organising consumption is services, modern way of saying organising production is manufacturing, but there is more to production then simply manufacturing for example; agriculture also is about production."

He said every government since 1990 has done a decent job on consumption, on organising consumption.

"And essentially what we have done is way of handing over the organization of production to the Chinese. So, this mobile phone, even though we are saying, we make this mobile phone in India, that is not a fact, this phone is not made in India, this phone is assembled in India all the components of this phone are made in China. The network that has produced this phone is made in China, is owned by China."

"So, the first message I would give in a Presidential address would be that India has to focus completely on production, because if we do not focus on production and we continue to focus only on consumption, we will find that we will run huge deficits, we will increase inequality, and eventually, we will run into a serious problem- social problem because of unemployment, which we are already facing. If you look at the numbers of the amount of people who are in jail, if you look at the numbers that are spent on internal security, if you look at the numbers, spent on our police forces, they are all spiral, they are all rising and everybody understands, the social tension is on the rise in India," he said.

Gandhi said that without data, AI means nothing.

"If we look at data today, there is one thing which is very clear. Every single piece of data that comes out of the production system in the world, the data that was used to make this phone, the data that is used to make electric cars, the data that is used to make basically all electronics on the planet today is owned by China. And the consumption data is owned by the United States. In China the consumption data is owned by China, but in India companies like; Google, companies like; Facebook, companies like; Instagram, X. They own our consumption data. So, if India wants to talk about AI, it has to first answer the question what data is going to power that AI? And the answer today is, India doesn't have that data, neither does India have production data, neither does India have consumption data," he said.

The Congress leader said "India has handed its consumption data to the big American companies and the production data we don't have anyway".

Gandhi said children in schools should be taught about batteries, electric motors about how these things combine, about how drones, robots, electric cars are structured, "how they will work together and most important, we have to start building a production network, so that we can get access to production data."

Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday attacked the Modi government, saying that the average GDP growth has come down to 5.8 per cent from 7.8 per cent recorded in 10 years of Manmohan Singh-led UPA government and asked how jobs will be created if the economy does not grow at the desired pace.

He asked if it was "Amrit Kaal" or "Vish Kaal", claiming that one lakh farmers have died by suicide in the past 10 years."Is this 'Amrit kaal' or 'Vish kaal'? In the last 10 years, 1,00,000 farmers have committed suicide. They have not progressed. Neither did they get MSP nor did their income double," he said.

The Congress leader also expressed condolences over loss of lives in the Maha Kumbh stampede, saying the government was not being transparent about the details of the incident. He demanded 'report' on the number of deaths.

"I want to speak over the stampede in Maha Kumbh 2025 ...So many people lost their lives... I said a thousand people died there (at Maha Kumbh stampede), if you say that I am wrong then at least give the exact report of the number of deaths that took place there," he said.

Kharge slammed the government over the falling value of the rupee against the dollar."In 2013, when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and the UPA government was in power at the Centre, he used to say, 'Rupee is in ICU' and has taken downwards dive, Today, the rupee is on a ventilator; it has crossed 87."Later, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked Kharge to substantiate his allegation that thousands lost their lives in Kumbh stampede.

He said LoP should do so by the end of today's proceedingsParliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that Kharge had alleged that lakhs of farmers died citing NCRB data and said the Leader of Opposition should substantiate his claims. Kharge said that he made the remarks as correct figures are not coming from the government.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi spoke about the propsed amendments to the Waqf Bill.

"I am cautioning and warning this government - if you bring and make a Waqf law in the present form, which will be violation of Article 25, 26 and 14, it will lead to social instability in this country. It has been rejected by the entire Muslim community. No Waqf property will be left, nothing will be left. You want to make India 'Viksit Bharat', we want 'Viksit Bharat'. You want to take this country back to the '80s and early '90s, it will be your responsibility," he said.

"Because, as a proud Indian Muslim, I will not lose an inch of my Masjid...I will not lose an inch of my Dargah. I will not allow that. We will no more come and give a diplomatic talk over here. This is the House where I have to stand and speak honestly, that my community - we are proud Indians. It is my property, not given by anyone. You cannot snatch it away from me. Waqf is a form of worship for me," he added.

The discussion will continue in both Houses on Tuesday. (ANI)