- 4 hours ago
In this Special Report, the panel debates the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the alleged suicides of Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The Supreme Court has questioned whether foreigners with Aadhaar cards can be allowed to vote, a point highlighted by BJP National Spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari. Congress National Spokesperson Salman Soz criticizes the government for the 'human cost' of the exercise, citing the death of 41 election workers. Political analysts Rajat Sethi and Ashutosh discuss the broader implications of the parliamentary deadlock and the trust deficit between the government and the opposition.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Alright, cutting across to our panelists this evening, joining me, Rajat Sethi, political analyst, Ashutosh, political analyst, Pradeep Bhandari, national spokesperson, Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. Salman Saws, national spokesperson, Congress.
00:12Each of you will get two minutes' time to put your point forward on a timer, and then the chance will go to somebody else.
00:18I'd like to begin with the BJP spokesperson. Pradeep Bhandari, you know, while one can, the jury's out on, you know, theatrics on the floor of the parliament, while drama on the floor of the parliament is one thing, but outside what is happening is entirely another issue where it comes down to the human cost of what is going on in the form of an SIR process.
00:39I am sure the video of the BLO from Muradabad crying before he took his own life will break your heart to Pradeep Bhandari.
00:48Well, Pradeep, good evening to your viewers and at the outset, let me tell you that an investigation has been ordered on that specific case.
00:59But what are the facts of the matter? The opposition today has become a rent-a-cause opposition, which always has an alibi or a issue in order to divert the attention from the mandate of the people,
01:10which is time and again telling the Indian opposition that it is engaging in disruptive, negative politics, which the Honorable Prime Minister called as the Muslim League Mawadi Conference.
01:18Just a few months back, the opposition was claiming about vote chori. Allow me to make my opening submissions by two observations of the Supreme Court, one of which is quoted by the India today.
01:27Quote, can foreigners with Aadhaar card be allowed to vote? The Supreme Court asks on the SIR.
01:32Quote, no voter came forward to challenge exclusion despite apprehensions of mass deletions after Bihar SIR.
01:38So, the claim of the Indian opposition, in particular Rahul Gandhi, was 60 lakh voters have been deleted, but not a single voter has come.
01:44Now, please note, what is the constitutional process under 324? It is the Election Commission which is looking after the process and the Supreme Court is supervising the process.
01:52Yes, I do agree that certain deaths of BLO is definitely a matter of concern because let me tell you what has happened in the last one week.
01:59Trinamool Congress BLA has threatened the BLO that if you remove any Bangladeshi leader named Lovely Khatun, you will be threatened to life.
02:07You have Trinamool Congress MLA Shyamalan Yadav who is publicly threatened to break the hands of the BLO.
02:12You have TMC leader Jamirul Islam Molla who is threatened to kill BLO Deepak Mehato.
02:16I believe you have also seen that video and India Today has reported it.
02:19How we all were shattered seeing the BLO being openly threatened by the Trinamool Congress.
02:23We have seen how TMC leader Mohamed Qasimuddin has beaten up BLO Nivedita Mandal's husband Kamal and threatened to kill him.
02:31Now, on the intention of the government, this is what Mr. Kiran Dijiju has said in the floor of the house at 432 that we are even willing to discuss the SIR.
02:39But nothing gives the opposition the argument to disrupt the parliament where each and every issue is willing to be discussed.
02:45The opposition is disrupting it because it does not have facts on its hand.
02:49Alright, great. You know, we are having a problem with our timer this evening.
02:53So, I would really urge all our panelists to take care of the time that they speak for and, you know, allow each of your panelists to speak.
03:02I could not hear your timers. I thought that…
03:04I am glad sir, but you have ended it. You know, though I do keep my own watch.
03:08You know, on a timer, but you have respected the timeframe of what you were given.
03:14I would hope your co-panelists will do the same.
03:16I want to bring in Salman Sars into this conversation.
03:18Though, you know, Pradeep Bhandari, the fact is, you have every right to go after the opposition on the charge of vote chori or what the opposition says.
03:26But to treat 33 lives right now, and that is what we are counting in terms of BLO suicides on ground, that's not small, sir.
03:34And that needs to be addressed. I'll come back to you and I want to bring in Salman Sars into this conversation.
03:38Salman Sars, are we staring at another session which is going to be a complete washout?
03:44If day one is to go by, that is exactly what's on the cards.
03:48Because if the government says that the Treasury benches say that they will allow debate, they are willing to talk about SIR, should the opposition not cooperate this time?
04:00Well, Priti, I think the Prime Minister himself set the tone for this Parliament session by, first he said that the opposition does drama and they should be talking about delivery.
04:12But he actually was doing drama outside Parliament today. That is drama.
04:18If you really want to deliver, deliver a press conference outside Parliament, then I will see.
04:26If you really want to talk about delivery, you've got to go inside Parliament and say the same things in front of the assembled parliamentarians.
04:35That is...
04:40Salman Sars is a problem with your audio.
04:42Yeah, so I was just saying that if he does these things inside Parliament, then I would say this is delivery.
04:49But we know he does a lot of drama.
04:52You know, we saw the footage that you just showed of this.
04:57It's very sad. It's heart-rending.
05:00You know, our report is that 41 election workers have died in 27 days.
05:05For this exercise that a very arrogant election commission, very arrogant election commission, which gives not an inch to the opposition, not an inch to our supporters, and basically runs this entire massive process, wants to do it in just a couple of months.
05:26The arrogance of the election commission flows from the arrogance of the government.
05:31Why? Because the government chooses the election commission members.
05:34We know that.
05:35Because this government circumvented what the Supreme Court had asked it to do.
05:40We want accountability.
05:43The people of India want accountability.
05:45We want accountability on air pollution in Delhi, for example.
05:49Not just Delhi, across the country.
05:51And what do they do? They manipulate data.
05:54By the way, this is in Delhi, there were four Indian circles.
05:58Okay.
05:59Chief Minister, LG, MCD, you know, and of course the Prime Minister.
06:06But they have done nothing but hide data.
06:09On national security, we want debate.
06:12Saman Sooz, I'll circle back to you now.
06:14You're one and a half minutes up and then hopefully we'll get the timer for the second round so everybody could get equal time.
06:19I thought you said two minutes. That's why I kept going.
06:21Okay. No, no. Because your co-panel has spoke for a minute and a half.
06:24So I'm giving you the same on my stopwatch and I will cut across right now.
06:27But Preeti, because he doesn't have much to say, he only took one and a half minutes out of two…
06:31Well, sir, I'm sure everyone has a lot to say even if they don't have much to say.
06:35Do not challenge me on that, Mr. Sooz.
06:39No, no. Don't challenge each other.
06:41It's going really well till now. Everyone's respecting each other.
06:44It's a good way to go about things.
06:46All right. I want to bring in Rajat Sethi and Ashutosh into this debate.
06:49Rajat Sethi, the fact is there is a zero trust deficit.
06:52When even the Prime Minister uses language like keep the theatrics outside,
06:57drama ke leh bahut ahur jage hai, not parliament, he's also cracking the whip.
07:01You can say that look at what has happened in the past.
07:04The opposition can say you've already set the tone.
07:09See, you have to leave some politics to the politicians, Preeti ji.
07:13You know, if all of these statements are wiped out from the political scene,
07:17it will become a very boring political theatre.
07:20So let's leave that aside and focus on what is important.
07:24If the SIR has to be discussed again, you know, repeatedly over the past 10 years or so,
07:29we've seen, you know, when Congress has been leading the opposition,
07:32they are the ones who know the rules and regulations much better than any other party.
07:37They are the grand old party of this country.
07:39There are rules and procedures that you have to follow,
07:42be it filing complaints against the election or tabling an issue like SIR in the parliament.
07:47My problem is that why does Congress not follow the rules?
07:51Question hour is not meant for SIR.
07:54There are separate rules which you can invoke to have that discussion
07:57and then ghero the government or the election commission or whatever you want to do.
08:00But if you want to, you know, break all the rules just because you believe that you are some kind of a princeling or something like that,
08:07then, you know, somebody is going to crack the whip and then you will come out crying and weeping and creating tamasha on television channels.
08:13So that should be avoided.
08:14Act like a mature party.
08:16Follow the rules and be more, you know, resilient about how you take up issues.
08:21Take up issues.
08:22Find people on the ground.
08:23Try and make a whole, you know, a whole degree of seriousness around what is there.
08:29Don't piggyback onto the deaths that is happening because all of these deaths happen due to many, many other factors also.
08:36You need to establish that.
08:37There will be FIRs.
08:38There will be investigation to clearly lay it out that why is a man or a BLO crumbling under the pressure?
08:45Are there any other factors which are adding to this whole pressure?
08:48And of course, when it comes to pressure, I am 100% of the opinion that the election commission should give more time.
08:54Even for the five states that are going into election, we should allow voter list preparation to go on till at least January end through the SIR process.
09:03Even if the Congress party or the opposition cries out that why is the list being created in towards the very last day of the election, let that be the case.
09:11We should not put pressure on the BLOs, but also the Congress party and the others in the opposition should realize not to create this timing, you know, related issues that they did in Bihar election.
09:22They were the ones, why did you drag the process till October?
09:25Similar pressure should not be put on the election commission because it all passes down to the BLO.
09:30No, and it is passing down to the BLO because Rajat, you might say that it's a matter of investigation, but Prima Fisi, 33 deaths and out of it, which are at least 14 bona fide suicide notes.
09:40You know, there clearly is a lot of pressure on the Booth level officers and it is translating into them breaking down and we've seen enough visuals of that.
09:49And that doesn't compensate by the election commission releasing one happy video of BLO's dancing.
09:55You know, that's just the mockery of it.
09:56But we'll come back to that.
09:57I want to bring in Ashutosh into this conversation with what's really happening in Parliament, Ashutosh, because what we are headed towards is, you know, another washout.
10:06And day one has set the tone.
10:09What happened during the monsoon session?
10:11What happened during the budget session?
10:13It's exactly that.
10:14It's going to be abject waste of public money, your and my money.
10:18Many would say that Parliament is the best place to protest, but ultimately some business needs to get done.
10:23You know, like Salman was saying, I would love to hear a debate on pollution where it's actually taken seriously by our leaders.
10:30See, Priti, this money debate, I never had given much importance to that because the Parliament is a Parliament and whether we give the logic that we are paying so much money from people's pocket and that's why there should be debate in the Parliament.
10:44That's an absurd debate.
10:45I've never subscribed to that kind of debate.
10:47The issue is that the Prime Minister has successfully controlled his own party.
10:51The Prime Minister does whatever the party, the party does what the Prime Minister wants him to do.
10:58There's no difference of opinion in the party and nobody dare differ with him.
11:03Now, he wants the similar kind of an opposition.
11:06That opposition should listen to him.
11:08Whatever he says should follow.
11:10And if opposition is trying to be defined, then obviously there are issues and that will be done.
11:15And it shows very clearly that in one day, 140 MPs were suspended.
11:21Never heard Indian democracy till that date.
11:24So, the issue today is a fundamental issue.
11:29That 28 or 32, forget about 28 or 32, when the 10 BLOs had committed suicide or died because of that.
11:37Should it not be immediately taken up in the Parliament and discussed and debated that why this is happening?
11:43I haven't heard a single word from the BJP.
11:47Rather, there are insinuations that these BLOs are committing suicide for any other factor could be reason for that.
11:56In an earlier debate, somebody who is close to the government has even insinuated that there is a bigger conspiracy.
12:03That's why these BLOs are committing suicide.
12:06I think nothing could be more cruel, more heartless than this.
12:10BLOs belong to the lowest rank of the bureaucracy.
12:15They are poor people.
12:17And the picture, the video, which the whole nation is seeing today, is a reality.
12:24But not a word.
12:26Why?
12:27Should it not be debated on the floor of the house?
12:31Immediately?
12:32Sir, time is up.
12:33And we have our timer back.
12:35It clearly had a long weekend.
12:37And now back with us.
12:38But great.
12:39So, the two-minute timer kicks in Rao.
12:41And Pradeep Bhandari, you know, the fact is, like I said,
12:44some of those videos, some of the heart-rending messages of the BLOs, you can't unsee and unhear them.
12:51And that needs to cut deep where the government is concerned.
12:54And that needs to be addressed ASAP.
12:56Keep the politics aside.
12:58Whatever the opposition might be saying, whatever the government wants to counter, that can be done separately.
13:03But one must address this issue.
13:06One must debate this issue on the floor of the house.
13:09It cannot be TMC trying to instigate BLOs in West Bengal and in Tamil Nadu.
13:14It is at the DMC's behest.
13:15Or in Uttar Pradesh, it is Samajwadi party.
13:17Well, Preeti, at the outset, my dear friend from the Congress party has forgotten that it's not the Congress government at this moment,
13:29it's Prime Minister Rendra Modi's government.
13:31When the Congress was in power, this gentleman, a corrupt man like Naveen Chabla was appointed by Sonia Gandhi
13:36and the government used to appoint the Election Commission.
13:38At this moment, there is a three-member committee which appoints the Chief Election Commissioner
13:42and the Congress party had gone to challenge it in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court rejected the petition of the Congress party
13:47saying that under Article 3 to 4, the government is very well justified to have a committee.
13:51So for the first time in India's independence, you have a committee deciding the Chief Election Commissioner.
13:55The Congress party always had a Chief Election Commissioner like a man who used to be a loyalist to Sonia Gandhi.
14:00That is fact number one.
14:01Fact number two, I completely agree with you that there should be a deeper investigation which has to be ordered and I will tell you why.
14:06Please look at the gentleman who was protesting today as a BLO.
14:09This gentleman was till yesterday with Abhishek Banerji in his local party meeting
14:15and today he claimed to be a BLO who was protesting against Shuvendu Adhikari.
14:19So definitely I believe these are not representatives of BLOs and there has to be a larger inquiry ordered.
14:24That who are these gentlemen, who is pressurizing them, that is point number two.
14:28Now please look at the seriousness and the difference between the intention.
14:31This is Mrs. Renuka Choudhury who takes her dog to the parliament and calls the parliamentarians as dog.
14:37And she believes that this is the issue which has to be discussed and this is the most important issue
14:41when quote unquote the SIR is an issue which the opposition wants us to discuss.
14:45So this is the seriousness of the India's opposition which is reflected by Renuka Choudhury on which Ashutosh,
14:51who might be a very well established man and there are very rich people in opposition like Rahul Gandhi
14:55who believe that 2.5 lakh rupees of taxpayers money per minute does not matter.
14:59This is what their mindset is.
15:00Our intention is reflected from how there was 100% productivity in the parliament session in April 2025
15:06because the opposition did not disrupt the parliament.
15:09I will give you another instance.
15:11You recall this video of Rahul Gandhi?
15:13For months they used to say that why is there no discussion happening on Manipur.
15:17When the prime minister started to speak on Manipur it was Rahul Gandhi instructing his member of parliament to stop the prime minister and go to the well.
15:24This is the intention of the congress party.
15:26So the intention of the congress party is neither to let the house function, neither to have a discussion on SIR.
15:31The time is up Pradeep, Pradeep the time is up. I will circle back to you. We might have just one more minute for all of our panellists.
15:38But Pradeep you bring up the case of one BLO which needs to be investigated.
15:43There are 10 other pictures that like I said should cut in deep.
15:47The heart rending messages including of this man who says take care of my daughter before he killed himself.
15:53And I think, you know, that needs to be addressed Pradeep.
15:56That can't be washed under the ambit of larger investigations, who is pressurizing them, political pressure.
16:02That needs to be addressed.
16:03Absolutely, an investigation has to be ordered.
16:05I want to bring in Salman Saws into this conversation.
16:08Salman Saws, you know, while the treasury benches, the government is responsible for the functioning of the parliament, so is the opposition Salman Saws.
16:16And if the opposition is serious about addressing the issues of the plight of BLOs today, then play by the rules, have that discussion.
16:29I think the rule is that when you have such a horrible situation in the country where so many of our workers are dying, these election workers are dying, I think this should be prioritized.
16:43And what the prime minister and the BJP want to do is they'll basically cast aspersions on anyone who raises the issue of the plight of these workers and the craziness of the SIR process that the election commission has instituted.
16:59And by the way, if I was a BJP spokesperson, I would not bring up Manipur.
17:04Manipur is one state you should not bring up.
17:07That is a state where women and children have been raped, where women have been paraded naked.
17:14You should be ashamed that the prime minister did not visit Manipur at all, would not say anything about it at all.
17:24So I would not, if I was a BJP spokesperson, I would keep quiet, I would shut up about Manipur.
17:31Okay.
17:32As far as this parliament is concerned, now let us talk about parliament.
17:39In this session, it's going to be 15 days, the shortest session in history.
17:48And there are going to be 13 bills have been scheduled.
17:5113 bills, 15 days, and 10 of these bills have not even gone to their respective standing committee.
18:00You want us to be serious?
18:02You should be serious.
18:04The BJP should be serious.
18:05About 800 million people in India surviving on free government food.
18:10That is the situation of this country.
18:12That the International Monetary Fund is telling you that the data that you're putting out for our economy, that gets a C grade.
18:21You should be careful about what you want.
18:23We want answers for the people of this country.
18:26We want answers for the PLOs who have died by suicide.
18:30That is the seriousness we want you to see.
18:32We don't want you to talk about Manipur anymore because you shut up about Manipur for two years, did nothing.
18:38The Prime Minister was silent.
18:39Mr. Soros, the time is up.
18:40I want to bring in both Ashutosh and Rajat Sethi into this conversation as political analysts devoid of ideology.
18:46Rajat, let's begin with you.
18:48Okay, what should the opposition and including the government do that we see some work in this session?
18:58At least we see some fruitful debates.
19:00Either sides need to bridge this deficit which is where trust is concerned rock bottom.
19:07I think they should not walk into the trap that the BJP would be laying over and over again.
19:14You know, what does BJP would want?
19:17Ideally, the opposition creating a ruckus, not allowing them to table an issue.
19:21And then the BJP can also walk out saying that, see, we gave them a chance, they never wanted a chance to discuss serious issues.
19:26Why do you want to fall into that trap each time?
19:29See, if you want to raise SIR, be serious about it.
19:32There are rules which are laid out.
19:34You can have back-channel conversations, back-channel negotiations.
19:37That's how the parliaments used to work.
19:39Those are personal relations that you invoke.
19:41And again, the main subject is the election commission which is not represented on the floor of the House.
19:48So how do you ask those questions?
19:50There has to be a meaningful way of engaging that.
19:52You cannot say that SIR is illegal because it's a patently constitutional exercise.
19:56So you need to support it also, find ways in order to be a creative part of the political class.
20:03They won't do that.
20:04The problem is that if you want to discuss the economy, discuss economy, bring out issues.
20:09AI is the conversation around the world.
20:11Technology and technology dominance has completely shaken up the contours, including security contours.
20:17But as a responsible opposition, you will find all of these issues too boring because this won't garner votes for you.
20:22But let me tell you, contrary to how you think that the Indian public falls for, these are the genuine issues public is worried about and concerned about.
20:32But as a responsible opposition, have you ever chosen to raise these issues?
20:36Has your leader ever spoken on these issues in proper depth that is needed to handle it and even corner the government for that sake?
20:43See, the problem is you want to only look for theatre, you want to only look for acting roles and then it results in a drama.
20:50And this is what the Prime Minister has said.
20:52And he basically, he deliberately put in that line because he knew that the Congress will fall into that trap and will create similar ruckus
20:59and will allow the government another peaceful, another 15 days or so throughout the Parliament session.
21:04This is my reading of the situation.
21:06Alright, which is basically every fault lies with the opposition, none with the government.
21:11And the opposition now needs to, you know, place what Rajat Sethi says.
21:16But I want to bring in Ashutosh into this conversation.
21:18Ashutosh, you know, gone are the days.
21:20You know, Rajat seems to suggest the goodwill back channel talks where SIR is concerned.
21:25I think it's been a year or two.
21:27That doesn't happen anymore when the Parliament comes into question.
21:30There is no goodwill anymore.
21:32See, Preeti, mark my word.
21:35The government doesn't want an opposition.
21:38It's not a joke.
21:40It wasn't a joke when it was said,
21:42Congress Mukt Bharat or Vipaksha Mukt Bharat.
21:45So that agenda is on to discredit opposition at every given point of time.
21:51Discredit them so much, with so much government machinery and resources,
21:56that tomorrow the people will start believing the opposition.
21:59Because they don't want an opposition.
22:01They hadn't, there is no secrecy about it.
22:04Now the two things which really baffles me.
22:06One, the BJP's over-vehement support to election commission,
22:11despite VLO's committing suicide.
22:13Secondly, election commission's sheer rigidity that this exercise has to be done in a month's time or so.
22:24Now, are these two things linked to each other?
22:27I just don't know.
22:30If anybody and everybody wants a clean voter list,
22:34if that is the idea, that is the aim, that is the goal,
22:38then why insist on 30 days?
22:41Why not three months?
22:42Why not four months?
22:44Especially in a states where the elections are almost one and a half years away.
22:49Why so much insistence on just one month?
22:5330 days or 40 days.
22:55Just spread out for three months.
22:57The BLOs will have more relaxed time.
22:59They will do a better job.
23:01There will be better screening.
23:02There will be better scrutiny.
23:04But no, it has to be done in a month's time.
23:06Whether the people are committing suicide or not suicide, that is immaterial.
23:10How cruel a system can be.
23:13Just imagine about the family of this man, service.
23:16Just imagine about it.
23:18This could happen.
23:19And since he belongs to the lowest rung of the bureaucracy,
23:23so nobody is bothered.
23:25Now left, right and center, the FIR are lost against them.
23:28How many DMs have been sacked?
23:30How many DMs have lost their job?
23:32None.
23:33Because they are powerful people.
23:35Fair point.
23:36Because these are the BLOs are the foot soldiers
23:38where the election commission is concerned and most taxed.
23:40I want to quickly give in one one minute, I believe.
23:43And let's go with that.
23:44First up, Pradeep Bhandari, one minute to put your point forward.
23:47Please go.
23:48Well, the Congress Party speaking about North East is like Gabbar
23:54speaking about acting as Jai in a Shole because it was Congress
23:58which had bombed Mizoram, point number one.
24:00Point number two, the fact here is that Mr. Ashutosh can go to the Supreme Court
24:05like Yogendra Yadav has.
24:06What is stopping him to go to the Supreme Court?
24:08Because this domain, three to four, it is in the purview of the election commission
24:11and the Supreme Court.
24:12Maybe Ashutosh has not read the constitution of India very well.
24:16That is point number two.
24:17Point number three, which is a very, very important point.
24:19Please go to the, he was speaking about Congress Mukt Bharat.
24:22We do not want to do Congress Mukt Bharat on our own.
24:25It's Congress which is doing it.
24:26Bihar, the Congress people are fighting against Congress.
24:28Jammu and Kashmir is nobody to pick up Congress flag.
24:30And Karnataka, it's the Congress CM and Deputy CM which are fighting.
24:33You did a six o'clock show on it.
24:34So Ashutosh call the Congress which is doing Congress Mukt Bharat.
24:37The real intention is here.
24:38When the election commission increased the honorarium of the BLO,
24:41you know who did not implement it.
24:42It was only one government which did not implement it.
24:45And the government is the Tirmamool Congress.
24:47So here the culprit is the Indian opposition which wants the BLO's to be pressurized,
24:51which do not want the free and fair process.
24:53Pradeep, Pradeep, I just want to put a small show plug.
24:56You said we have been doing Karnataka Congress versus Congress,
24:59but look at the ticker band right now.
25:01It is Mahayuti versus Mahayuti where Maharashtra is concerned.
25:04Stay tuned at 7.30 to watch that show.
25:06One minute, Salman Saur.
25:08There is no Mahayuti, that is your editorial.
25:09I'm just telling you, stay tuned, stay tuned for that.
25:12Okay.
25:13One minute, Salman Saur.
25:14Time starts now, sir.
25:15Go ahead.
25:16I want you to think back to what Rajat Sethi said
25:19about how the Prime Minister set a trap and the opposition fell into it.
25:26If you think that is the case,
25:29it really tells me that the Prime Minister is a very non-serious person.
25:34That he does not seem to understand that there is a real crisis in this country
25:39of jobs, of people not being able to afford food, of real starvation concerns
25:46if a government handout is not provided to people.
25:49I thought we were in the business of creating opportunities for the people of India
25:54so that they could fend for themselves.
25:56But what the Prime Minister and the BJP have been doing is actually trying to create a situation
26:03whereby the people would be dependent on a welfare state and they would benefit,
26:08the BJP would then benefit from that kind of a system because it would be where they can just donate money.
26:15I think that the Prime Minister, if he thinks that's going to sustain, I think he's wrong.
26:19Sir, time marks. It will be a hard cut, sir.
26:21One minute. Rajat Sethi, make your point, please.
26:24Rajat Sethi, your turn. Sir, one minute. Can you hear me?
26:32He's there with us. Go ahead. Yes, go ahead.
26:36Yeah. So what I was saying is that Prime Minister is far too serious a politician
26:41beyond the comprehension of the Congress Party and the entire opposition put together.
26:45So for you guys to understand him, you'll have to do a PhD and go to the public,
26:50ask, solicit their support and still you will find it very hard to understand him.
26:54If you want to debate on genuine economic issues, read up the data, read up IMF reports,
27:00this report that you are quoting as a C grade given to data.
27:04There's just one clause that has been picked up and a narrative has been built.
27:09What is a fact is that the country is growing at the fastest possible rate, 8.2% around the world.
27:15The kind of global headwinds that are there working against India right now are unprecedented.
27:21And in spite of that, that shows the resilience of this country.
27:24If it can grow at 8.2% when such turbulence is there, that gives us confidence.
27:28It might not give Congress Party the confidence, but it gives the normal citizen of this country
27:32far too much confidence that there is future in this country.
27:35And if we work hard, we can achieve the impossible.
27:38But the problem with Congress Party is...
27:40Time up. One minute, Ashutosh. Make your point, sir.
27:43I wish what Rajas Sethi is saying should have been true.
27:47The economy is growing at the rate of 8.02, but IMF doesn't believe it.
27:53It's the same IMF which talked about the Frazile 5 and the BJP took to the whole world
27:57and ridiculed the Congress development, the Manmoun Singh government's development.
28:01Now the same IMF is talking about that India's data is suspect.
28:06And that's why it has been put into the category of C.
28:09C category, imagine. We are not discussing this.
28:12The American Chinese Economic Security Review openly say that the Pakistani army has succeeded
28:22over Indian army and it's not a terrorist attack.
28:25It's an insurrection kind of a thing.
28:27Government of India has kept his mouth shut. Not a word.
28:31That's the confidence which our Prime Minister shows in our government.
28:36What about the rest? Why we are not speaking? Why we are not telling...
28:42Why IMF to shut up? Why we are not telling the American administration?
28:45Shut up. Are you trying to tell us...
28:47Ashutosh, that's all the time that we have now.
28:49Pradeep wants to come in, but Pradeep, if I come to you, I'll have to give equal time to everyone
28:52and then it's just going to never end.
28:54But what you can do, Pradeep, is stay tuned for the next show
28:57which is on the Mahayuti in Maharashtra because you've been tuning in to all our shows in Karnataka.
29:01So I'm going to leave it at that. Thank you all four of you for joining us.
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