BJP govt conducting its next election campaign through her: Tharoor on Prez Murmu's' speech

New Delhi, Jan 31: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday slammed President Draupadi Murmu's address to a joint session of Parliament, where he accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government of conducting its next election campaign through her.

"The President doesn't contest elections but it looks like BJP govt is conducting its next election campaign through her. The entire speech was an election speech trying to praise the govt for everything it has done&skipping over the bits it hasn't done so well," ANI quoted S Tharoor in a tweet.

In her first address to the Parliament after getting elected as the President of India in July 2022, Draupadi Murmu hailed the government for showing courage to transform policies and strategies. "My decisive government has always kept the country's interest paramount and shown the willpower to completely transform the policies and strategies when required," she said. "From surgical strike to a firm crackdown on terrorism, from a befitting response to every misadventure from LoC to LAC, from abrogation of Article 370 to Triple Talaq, my government has been recognised as a decisive government," PTI quoted her as saying.

Notably, she pointed out the government's ability to give a "befitting reply" to any "misadventure from LoC (Line of Control) to LAC (Line of Actual Control)".

President Murmu, in her address, highlighted the commissioning of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, the government's ambitious Agnipath recruitment scheme and the 'Vibrant Village' programme aimed at providing better facilities to the border areas.

Draupadi Murmu further claimed, "This has accelerated development in such areas. The left-wing extremism, which had become a major threat to national security in the last few decades, has now been confined to a few districts."

Congress' leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the party will raise the issues in the Parliament. "There are a lot of issues against the government. We'll raise these issues in Parliament one after another. There was nothing on unemployment in the President's address," he was quoted as saying by a website.