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President Ram Nath Kovind to address joint session of Parliament today
- Mint takes a look at some of the issues that could figure in President Ram Nath Kovind's speech in Parliament
NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint session of parliament on Thursday -- the first after the Lok Sabha elections -- is expected to outline measures to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “inclusive growth” agenda, in keeping with his slogan of “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas” as well as his stated mission of catapulting India into the $5 trillion bracket by 2024.
Kovind’s speech – seen as outlining the priorities and the roadmap for fulfilling those objectives – will be keenly watched for pointers as to which policies will mark continuity and which will mark change.
If the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll manifesto and Modi’s first meeting with the NITI Aayog – the federal policy think tank – on 15 June are anything to go by, Kovind’s first speech to parliament would have a major focus on the rural-agri sector, besides employment – with some themes carrying on from Modi’s first term in office.
“Minimum government, maximum governance,” strengthening the manufacturing sector, steps to cut down on corruption, poverty, unemployment, drought and ways to bolster India’s national security are the themes that Kovind could speak on. Mint takes a look at some of the issues that could figure in Kovind's speech.
Economy and innovation:
PM Modi has to bring about structural reforms in agriculture, boost exports and rev up a slowing down economy. His income support scheme for farmers seeks to alleviate the pain in the rural economy but underlying causes of the agrarian distress have to be addressed. He also has to make sure enough quality jobs are created in the economy in line with the growth in the labour market. Modi also has to carry forward his efforts to reduce the toxic assets in the banking sector and effectively resolve the liquidity crisis in the non-banking finance sector so that businesses get hassle free access to finance for their projects.
With “Make in India” unveiled in 2014 within months of taking office in Modi’s first term to boost domestic and defence manufacturing, Kovind’s speech could focus on steps to boost the signature programme to improve exports. This is seen as key to help expand the Indian economy to $5 trillion by 2024. The BJP manifesto talks of a longer term vision – the aspiration to make India the third largest economy of the world by 2030. In line with this, Kovind could speak of government plans to unveil a new industrial policy to improve competitiveness of manufacturing and services besides turning India into a defence manufacturing hub.
On Thursday, Kovind could also speak of government plans to further improve India’s ease of doing business rankings that would better its chances of attracting foreign direct investment. In Modi’s first term in office, India had climbed up from 142 in the World Bank rankings to 77.
With the BJP manifesto talking about the government’s intention to continue with the simplification of GST process, Kovind could make a reference to this in his speech.
Another topic the president could dwell on is innovation. To improve infrastructure, the manifesto had promised capital investment of Rs.100 trillion – something that Kovind could elaborate on.
Rural and agriculture:
Given that rural distress was seen as a key reason for the BJP losing a string state polls in November to its main rival the Congress, some of the first decisions taken by the Modi government after it returned to office were to alleviate agrarian woes.
In his NITI Aayog meeting, Modi had announced a decision to set up a task force of state chief ministers and central ministers to prepare a blueprint for structural reforms in agriculture. Kovind’s speech could refer to this as well as the steps implemented by the government a day after being sworn into office. These include extending the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, or PM-Kisan scheme, to include all the 145 million farmers across the country and ₹3,000 monthly pension scheme for 125 million small and marginal farmers. In the first three years, the scheme will target 50 million small and marginal farmers.
With drought declared in eight states, Kovind could outline steps planned by the government to improve irrigation and increasing crop area under irrigation – something the BJP manifesto has talked about too. Improving farm productivity with an investment of ₹25 lakh crore and short-term new agriculture loans up to ₹1 lakh for 1-5 years on condition of prompt repayment were two other promises made in the manifesto that Kovind could talk about.
Health, Social, Women’s Welfare:
The Modi government in its first tenure already launching “Ayushman Bharat -Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana last year” Kovind’s speech could have references to how the scheme can be taken forward. The insurance scheme provides an annual health cover of ₹5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. The president could also outline the government’s plans to establish health and wellness centres across the country that would offer telemedicine and diagnostic laboratory facilities by 2022. This is in keeping with the government’s plans to ensure quality primary medical care to the poor at his doorstep.
The president could also elaborate on plans to set up more Medical or Post Graduate Medical Colleges through public and/or private participation in the country, by 2024. He may also talk about the extension of government’s signature program Mission Indradhansuh to ensure full immunization coverage for all the children and pregnant women by 2022. Besides this, Kovind could also speak about incentives to ensure increased participation of women in the work force.
Employment:
The BJP manifesto had spoken of the government launching a “new scheme to provide collateral-free credit up to ₹50 lakh for entrepreneurs to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the youth.” It had also spoken of encouraging startups through creation of a `Seed Startup Fund` of ₹20,000 crore. Kovind could throw light on these two proposals as well as the identification of 22 major “Champion Sectors” as key drivers of Indian economy. With the manifesto promising to take necessary steps to increase the number of seats in central law, engineering, science and management institutions by at least 50% in the next five years, this could be a subject that Kovind speaks about in his speech.
National security:
Given that national security was a major platform on which the April-May polls were fought, it is natural to expect that the president could allude to the subject in his speech.
While the NDA government, throughout its first five years in office ensured the setting up of a tight anti-infiltration grid along the Line of Control (LoC) in the north and the international border (IB) with Pakistan and Bangladesh, President Kovind is likely to address more issues of growing terrorism in Kashmir, in the wake of the loss of lives of India’s security forces. With an increasing number of youth joining terror groups in Kashmir, Kovind is also likely to touch upon the issue of growth and empowerment with a view to keeping its youth safe.
While the ruling BJP has been stressing on the passage of several important bills in Parliament including the Citizenship Amendment Bill – which was awaiting passage in the Rajya Sabha – it has been vehemently insisting on not just the completion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), but the eventual introduction of the NRC in West Bengal as well.
However, with the NRC being a Supreme Court mandated process, it is unlikely that Kovind will make any reference to the same.
Black money
The NDA had made the return of black money and crackdown on corruption its major poll planks – in 2014 as well as in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. Kovind is likely to carry forward this message especially after the passage of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, last year. The act empowers probe agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) to confiscate and attach properties of fugitives, at home and abroad. With the Act bolstering the ED, President Kovind is likely to stress upon the import of other agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a bid to highlight India’s anti-corruption network. The income tax department has taken several steps to check generation and laundering of unaccounted wealth, a priority for the NDA. Within weeks of returning to office in May, the Modi government sacked 27 senior tax officials of direct and indirect administration facing corruption charges.
Neetu Chandra Sharma and Shaswati Das contributed to this report
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First Published:20 Jun 2019, 09:19 AM IST
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