New Delhi, Jun 5 (UNI) Describing the talk of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) as another 'Jumla' by the Narendra Modi government, the Congress on Friday charged the government of misleading the people of the country.
Addressing a press conference, AICC senior spokesperson Kapil Sibal said, 'The Prime Minister on May 12 asked the country to go vocal for local and announced an economic package to make the country self-reliant and termed it as 'Atmanirbhar Abhiyaan'.
'Self-reliant India is nothing, but an act of self-deception. It is another jumla. The government should stop misleading the country,' he added.
Stressing the need to enhance the facility of research and development at the University level, the former Law Minister said, 'The wealth of the country is not linked to industries, not to exports, to production, not to taxes, but to the things by which the intellectual property is connected. Intellectual property happens in Universities, not factories.
'If you want your nation to be wealthy, you will have to invest in the University system for innovation and creating of intellectual property. Unless you invest in the varsities, a nation will never be self-reliant, only upon the PM's announcement.
'Tell the nation about your economic policy, industrial policy, manufacturing policy. The nation won't be self-sufficient with just a slogan,' the Congress leader said.
Questioning the government claim of striving for a self-reliant India, Mr Sibal said, 'The majority of video-conferencing applications used in India during the lockdown are based abroad (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet).
'Major e-commerce platforms are backed by global majors like Amazon, Alibaba, Walmart, Softbank. Amazon India is backed by http://Amazon.com Inc, Walmart Inc's has 81.3 per cent stake in Flipkart, Alibaba backs online grocery company BigBasket, SoftBank Corp backs Grofers,' he added.
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