Presidential Address was a list of bureaucratic ideas instead of a strategic vision: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Feb 2: Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday criticised the Presidential address which marked the beginning of the Budget Session of the Parliament. He said that the speech had no strategic vision and did not speak about the issues the country is facing currently including the growing gap between the extremely rich and the poor in the country.

"Unfortunately, the Presidental Address was a long list of things that the government claims to have done but did not really contain the deeper strategic issues that we would have liked to see. It did not touch a couple of central challenges facing our country," he said.

Rahul Gandhi is the first speaker in the debate on motion of thanks to the Presidents address on Wednesday in Lok Sabha.

"To me, it seemed that Presidential Address was a list of bureaucratic ideas instead of a strategic vision. It looked to me as if it has been constructed not by a vision of leadership but by a group of bureaucrats who had to simply put something down on paper," stated the Congress MP. He further said that the Presidental Address did not mention about the idea of "two Indias".

"I think there were three fundamental things that were not spoken about in the Presidential Address. First, and what I consider to be the most important, is the idea that there are now two Indias. There is now no longer one India," said Rahul Gandhi.

"One India is for the extremely rich people - for those who have immense wealth, immense power, for those who do not need a job, those who do not need water connection, electricity connections, but for those who control the heartbeat of the country. And then another India for the poor. The gap between these two Indias is widening," he added.

The 2022 Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the budget session is being held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part will take place from March 14 to April 8.

Gandhi also expressed his disappointment over the Presidential speech for not mentioning about employment crisis. "There was not a single word on unemployment in the Presidential Address. The youth across the country is looking for jobs. Your govt is unable to provide them with one," the Congress MP said.