Sibal slams NDA rally for ‘denigrating country’s image’

NEW DELHI - Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rally for attacking government institutions and ‘denigrating the country’s image’.

Sibal said the BJP itself has a lot of flaws in its party, and should not point at other political or governmental institutions.

“This is a societal issue which needs to be addressed, and needs to be addressed holistically, so don’t just denigrate this country by doing the kind of things they did in the Parliament, because we have to together do something about the system. They are just bringing pure politics in to it, and they must understand that they have a lot of skeletons in their own cupboards, which is why I mentioned it,” Sibal told reporters after an awards function here.

“This is not to take any revenge, it’s just to tell them that, ‘look, please look inwards before you start attacking institutions and destroying the sub-stratum of the Parliamentary democracy’,” he added.

Kapil Sibal further said the BJP by doing all this is presenting a poor picture of India to the Heads of States such as United States President as Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who recently paid a state visit to the country one after the other.

“This is wrong. Today, when the country is moving forward, when our economy growth is moving towards 9 percent, when the four Heads of States are visiting India within a span of one month, then you are saying that our system is dysfunctional, and blaming one political party alone is not at all right. This is not right for the country and is not good for the country’s growth,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sibal challenged the BJP-led NDA Government’s change of telecom policy in 1999 claiming that the Government actually lost Rs 1.43 lakh crore in revenue in 1999 due to the then regime shifting to revenue share system from fixed licence fee for telecom operations. (ANI)