New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) The Opposition leaders of Friday accused the government of being high on symbolism and low on substance, saying there are many contradictions in the claims made by the government.

Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks on President's address in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram said the ruling party believes that uniformity is unity but Congress party and Opposition will always fight to preserve the cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity of India.

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"One language, one religion, one kind of culture, now even one temple, one god and even taking away the diverseness of our nation," Chidambaram said.

He said while the ruling party might have to please their leader and indulge in sycophancy, the reality of their India, and the reality of "what is actually happening is very very different."

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"There has been a criminal trespass which this sengol witnessed in this House. It was a grave failure of security and intelligence and now we are seeing the spectacle of it being turned into a political circus where the whole trial and arrest is going to be turned into a political blame game," he said.

"The sengol which stands for righteousness and democracy and justice saw a spectacle of 143 members being suspended from this house," he said.

The Congress leader also claimed that the Women Reservation Bill, widely touted as a progressive move by the ruling coalition, was still a distant mirage as it can only be implemented after the census and delimitation.

Chidambaram said the two goal posts will never meet because the census will happen after 2026 and delimitation after that will throw up its own set of complications.

He said the delimitation is going to be tremendously complicated if the Centre resorts to delimit constituencies according to population because that would again mean penalising the southern states which have limited the population.

"The 17 BJP-ruled states account for 60 per cent of all crimes against women, 70 per cent of all rapes are committed in these states. So this 'double-engine sarkar' ... is in fact a double-edged sword which is actually hating the women," he said.

Speaking about the the crisis in Manipur, he said there was not a single mention of it in the president's address.

"It is happening right in front of our eyes and the government is being completely mute," he said.

Chidambaram also took exception to president's remark in her speech on increased jobs in the market, saying there are still 96 lakh vacancies in government jobs.

The situation is so dire that the youth are ready to go to conflict zones because of lack of employment opportunities in India, he said.

"This is the reality of government -- high on symbolism low on substance," he said.

NCP leader Supriya Sule said the budget speech and president speech was same and there were so many contradictions in both the speeches.

"How many toilets are operational there is no data, railways have cleaned but garbage has not reduced," she said.

She added, "Every one wanted inflation reduction employment. So many companies are reducing their force but no one is talking about it."

Sule said Parliament is a place to have serious discussion and is not just about "jingoism" but to give suggestions and hold discussions.

"It is not only about using Is - IT, ED, CBI," she said.

PTI UZM

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)