In his Independence Day speech at Red Fort on Friday, Modi said attempts to set up semiconductors during the Congress regime had failed in the initial stage itself.
File Photo: IANS
Encouraged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on how attempts to set up semiconductor factories 50–60 years ago in India were “killed at birth”, BJP leader Amit Malviya on Saturday slammed the Congress, saying it was a “tragic chapter in India’s tech history”.
In his Independence Day speech at Red Fort on Friday, Modi said attempts to set up semiconductors during the Congress regime had failed in the initial stage itself.
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In a social media post titled ‘The most tragic chapter in India’s tech history: Semiconductor Complex Ltd, Mohali’, Malviya said a mysterious fire gutted the SCL facility in Mohali in 1989.
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“The probe was inconclusive, but suspicion of sabotage lingered. With it, India’s semiconductor dream went up in smoke. What followed was worse — decades of political neglect and bureaucratic apathy, with revival decisions and funding stalled,” said Malviya, in charge of the BJP’s National Information and Technology Department.
Along with his social media post, the BJP leader attached a copy of an old parliamentary question in which then Minister of State for Science and Technology KR Narayanan said that a preliminary estimate of the loss on account of the fire at SCL was about Rs 60 crore.
Malviya criticised the Congress for allegedly ignoring the semiconductor needs of the country, a day after a bitter verbal duel with Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on the issue.
The Congress leader and former Union Minister criticised PM Modi’s I-Day speech announcement that the first ‘Made in India’ chip will be rolled out by the end of this year. He had on Friday sought to give credit to the earlier Congress government for setting up India’s first semiconductor complex in the early 1980s.
He wrote on X, “The promise of a ‘Made-in-India’ semiconductor chip has been made countless times – each time with fanfare, each time without results. This promise was, in fact, made today with a big lie, which has become the hallmark of PM Modi, because India’s first semiconductor complex was already established in Chandigarh in the early 1980s.”
Malviya, meanwhile, thanked PM Modi for identifying semiconductor production as a priority area.
“Today, under PM Modi’s leadership, India is rebooting its chip ambitions. The impatient must remember that semiconductors are among the hardest, most strategic industries to build. Progress has been made, and much more will follow,” Malviya said.
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