BJP calls Prez address grocery list of schemes

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday expressed disappointment over President Pranab Mukherjee's address to both Houses of Parliament, saying that it failed to outline the Central government's strategy to tackle the challenges of corruption, price rise and economic slowdown.

"The presidential address to Parliament is totally disappointing, directionless and uninspiring. It did not address the challenges faced by the country — be it massive corruption, unabated price rise, agricultural crisis, farmers' suicides, growing unemployment etc," said former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu.

"Though the presidential address mentioned about serious economic crisis, it did not spell out the steps proposed to be taken by the government to address the serious situation of fiscal deficit touching 5.5 per cent and GDP coming down to 5 percent," he said. "The government could not give any roadmap to tackle any of these issues."

The BJP said that the speech prepared for the President failed to reflect the prevailing situations in the country and instead sounded a "grocery list" of government's ongoing schemes.

"The President's speech should not be a grocery list of government's schemes, which unfortunately it was. Neither does it reflect the state of the country nor the mood of the country," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

BJP president Rajnath Singh, sources said, was likely to highlight the government's alleged mis-governance when the Lok Sabha takes up discussion of the motion of thanks for President's speech.

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