Protests will intensify: Cong on President’s hardline on CAA

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 30

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Responding to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to both Houses of Parliament on Friday, the Congress said the government’s hardline on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will intensify protests against the law.

Former minister and Congress veteran P Chidambaram on Friday said the first policy statement of the government in the new year offered no solutions to the slowing economy or the protests against CAA.

Also read: President Kovind terms CAA ‘historic’, opposition members protest

“The government’s restatement of its policy on Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh shows that it has learnt nothing in the last 6 months and is determined to heap injustice and humiliation on the 75 lakh people in the Kashmir valley. Likewise, the government has obstinately reiterated its hard-line position on CAA unmindful of the protests by students, youth and women in every state of India. The government’s rejection of the democratic resistance will only intensify the protests,” Chidambaram said.

He said the President’s Address is the first policy statement of the government in the new year, he looked for indications on how the government intended to tackle the grave economic slide.

“Alas, I found none. All that we heard was a tiresome repetition of old slogans and old cliches that have lost all meaning in the last few years. Sadly, there was not a word on the macro-economic situation. Not a word on lost jobs, increasing unemployment and rising consumer price inflation. Not a word on the closure of thousands of industries, especially in the SME sector,” Chidambaram noted.

He said the government is clueless, and therefore the President’s Address was silent on dwindling investment and rising number of stalled projects.  The future of the manufacturing sector is bleak, he added.