You cannot write your own report card: Sibal takes aim at Modi

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday, 6 September took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latter's speech at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) on Saturday, saying the prime minister could not write his own report card and it was for the people to do so.

Sibal, a senior advocate, also criticised Modi’s reference to giving a dose of homoeopathy from the Red Fort, saying students had decided that nothing would be cured by such a remedy. "You also made a strange statement. In a way, you referred to the poor students who were protesting at Jantar Mantar as 'dimagi Naxals' and remarked that you gave them homoeopathic medicine," Sibal said at a press conference.

"This is not right... you are the prime minister of this country; is it correct that students are beaten by your police, and the young women and girls who were there are beaten and dragged... were you giving them homoeopathic medicine?" asked Sibal, an Independent MP formerly with the Congress.

He said using such language while holding the country's highest elected office did not befit the prime minister. "The illness plaguing this country can only be cured by surgery because homoeopathy has no cure for it. And after surgery, they need allopathy," Sibal said.

At SRCC's centenary celebrations on Saturday, Modi had said that compared with 2013, the country was far more secure economically and socially. "But seeing this, some people's restlessness and frustration are increasing. You must have heard my speech on 15 August. For such people, I gave a dose of homoeopathy from the Red Fort, a small homoeopathy pill.

"And you know, they say the nature of homoeopathy is that when you start the medicine, at first the illness flares up even more. That is the nature of homoeopathy. So from the Red Fort, I gave a homoeopathy pill, dimagi Naxal," Modi said.

"As I said, first it flares up the illness for some time, and then begins the cure. In the same way, as soon as I gave the dimagi Naxal pill, all the dimagi Naxals started coming out. And those who are promoting this illness, now the public is seeing their true colours too," he said.

Sibal said he did not understand how Modi could present his own report card before students. "Now, my understanding is that if a student's report card is to be written, it is not written by the student themselves, but by the teacher. If I am the government and I write my own report card, that simply does not make sense.

"Prime minister, we will write your report card; you cannot write your own report card. It is quite a unique capability of yours that you write your own report card," Sibal said.

He also questioned the government's ability to run the country when it could not conduct an examination properly. "What is its capacity to run the country when it cannot manage a single NEET exam? There is paper leak after paper leak after paper leak! And then you come before the nation and say, 'Look at my achievements, look at my report card which I made myself'," he said.

On the economy, Sibal questioned the government's inflation and growth figures. "If GDP growth is 7.8 per cent and nominal is 10.3 per cent, it implies inflation is only 2.5 per cent. If that is true, then why have the prices of sugar, garlic, ginger, and milk skyrocketed? You might not know this, but we do. You claim inflation is 2.5 per cent, but who will believe this? Nobody believes these figures you throw around," he said.

Sibal also said the employment situation in the country was extremely dire.

On Jammu and Kashmir, he questioned Modi's claim that the situation was completely normal. "You spoke about Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that the situation is completely normal, there is no stone-pelting, and everyone is happy. It is wonderful if people are happy, but if things are so normal, why don't you restore its statehood? You yourself say that everything is peaceful and normal," he said.

Sibal also rejected Modi's claim that terrorism had ended. "You claim terrorism has ended. Where has it ended? What happened in Pahalgam where 26 people were killed? Practically every single day, some incident occurs. You claimed that during the UPA tenure, police personnel and civilians were killed. Yes, they were. But by 2014, those numbers had declined significantly," he said.

Sibal accused Modi of having ruined foreign policy, defence, security, the economy and employment. He also attacked the government over the treatment of Dalits and Muslims, citing recent remarks by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

"You stay silent when Dalits are mistreated and lynched. Recently, even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat stated that anyone who tells Muslims to leave the country is not a Hindu. The signal is clear; even the RSS is advising you against this. I myself heard you say on television, 'The day I start doing Hindu-Muslim politics, I will leave politics'. Yet, you have been doing the exact same thing for years," he alleged.

With PTI inputs