In President’s address, cheer for Rafale and hint of a law on nikah halala, NRC expansion

This is the second time this year that President Ram Nath Kovind has mentioned the controversial Rafale fighter jets in an address to Parliament.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they arrive to attend the first day of the budget session. | Photos: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

New Delhi: Allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal might have failed to resonate with voters in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, but the French fighter aircraft found its way into President Ram Nath Kovind’s joint address to Parliament Thursday.

“My government is rapidly taking forward the work of modernisation of the Army and the armed forces,” Kovind said. “India is going to receive the delivery of the first Rafale fighter aircraft and Apache helicopters in the near future.”

The Congress jumped on the issue after the President’s address ended, with party president Rahul Gandhi telling reporters outside Parliament that he still believes that the government had indulged in corruption in the fighter aircraft deal.

This is the second time this year that Kovind has mentioned Rafale in an address to Parliament.

In January, in his address to a joint session of Parliament during the Budget session, Kovind had said the induction of the Rafale aircraft into the Air Force “will make India stronger”.

President Kovind weighed in on several other key issues as well in his address Thursday, from triple talaq to the even more contentious matter of National Register of Citizens.

The ‘need’ to eradicate triple talaq & nikah halala

Laying down the road map for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for the next five years, Kovind sought to reach out to the minorities as he talked about the need to do away with social evils like instant triple talaq and nikah halala (where a woman has to consummate a second marriage before she can file for divorce and remarry her first husband).

“To secure equal rights for every sister and daughter in the country, eradication of social evils like triple talaq and nikah halala is imperative,” he said. “I would urge all the members to cooperate in these efforts to make the lives of our sisters and daughters better and dignified.”

His statement was seen as another indication that the new Modi government will bring in a law to abolish the practice of nikah halala, a promise made in the BJP manifesto for the 2019 elections. It has already been pushing for a law to ban triple talaq, which lapsed with the 16th Lok Sabha’s conclusion after failing to muster parliamentary consensus.

One Nation-Simultaneous Elections

A day after Prime Minister Modi announced the setting up of a panel to look into simultaneous polls, President Kovind said they were the need of the hour.

“During the last few decades, due to frequent elections being held in some part of the country or the other, the pace and continuity of development programmes have been impacted…,” he added. “‘One Nation–Simultaneous Elections’ is the need of the hour, which would facilitate accelerated development, thereby benefitting our countrymen.”

The President urged all Members of Parliament to seriously consider this “development-oriented” proposal.

Balakot airstrike

National security was another key highlight of Kovind’s address.

“India has amply demonstrated both her intent and capabilities, first through surgical strikes and then through airstrikes, after the Pulwama attack, at terrorist hideouts across the border,” he said. “In future too, all possible steps will be taken to ensure our security.”

The President said the designation of Masood Azhar, whose terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed is responsible for the 14 February terror attack, as a global terrorist by the United Nations stood testimony to the fact.

NRC and citizenship amendment bill

Kovind also sought to emphasise the “threat” illegal immigrants posed to India’s security, and how they were creating a “social imbalance” in many parts of the country.

In this light, the President said, the government has decided to implement the ‘National Register of Citizens’ — aimed at weeding out infiltrators — on a priority basis in areas affected by infiltration.

The government, he added, will make efforts to amend the Citizenship Act while protecting different linguistic, cultural and social identities.

Fighting corruption high on agenda

Kovind said the Modi government, in its second term, will make its “zero-tolerance policy” towards corruption more comprehensive and effective. “The mission to eliminate corruption from public life, and government services will be implemented with greater zeal,” he added.

He also pointed out that the drive to weed out corruption had seen the government disqualify 4.25 lakh company directors over the past two years, and revoke the registration of 3.5 lakh suspicious companies.

‘Big thrust for skilling’

To tap the full potential of India’s demography, Kovind said, the government will come up with schemes to empower the youth to get employment.

The President said the government had taken a number of initiatives to develop the skills of the youth by providing them financial support for startups and self-employment, and making an adequate number of seats available for higher education. But more measures will be taken in the next five years, he added.

“An effort will now be made to cover 30 crore people by expanding this scheme. A facility for entrepreneurs to avail of loans up to Rs 50 lakh without any guarantee will also be introduced,” Kovind said.

“Apart from this, new employment opportunities will be generated through appropriate policies in sectors which have the potential to accelerate the economy,” he added.

President talks of nation-builders, skips Nehru again

Kovind said the first Modi government had made several efforts to preserve the memory of nation-builders, including building ‘Dandi Museum’ to honour Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Statue of Unity’ in tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ‘Kranti Mandir’ for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and a national memorial for B.R. Ambedkar.

However, he did not mention India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, often blamed by the BJP for several of the country’s contemporary problems. He had made the same omission in 2017, when he failed to mention Nehru in his inaugural address.