By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech was more of a ceremonial affair and had nothing concrete to offer to counter the several challenges facing the country.
“The prime minister’s speech was a ceremonial affair. He spoke impressive words, but we don’t see any impresseive action taken by the government on crucial issues such as price rise, drought, unemployment and so on,” BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told IANS.
Naqvi said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was working more for the big corporate houses rather than farmers and labourers.
Singh, in his Independence Day address to the nation Saturday, spoke about inclusive goals, his government’s secular credentials and the measures that the UPA government plans to take to counter price rise and drought-like conditions in different parts of the country.
“In view of the deficiency of monsoons, we have postponed the date for repayment of bank loans of our farmers. We are also giving additional support to farmers for payment of interest on short-term crop loans,” Manmohan Singh had said, adding that all efforts would be made to control the rising prices of essential commodities.