BJP jabs Congress for neglecting semiconductor production after 1989 fiasco

New Delhi, Aug 16 BJP leader Amit Malviya on Saturday stepped up his attack on the Congress alleging negligence of the semiconductor production sector under its governments in the past decades.

Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks during the Independence Day speech at the iconic Red Fort on how attempts to set up semiconductor factories 50–60 years ago were "killed at birth", Malviya alleged that the sole chip unit set up under the Congress rule in Punjab’s Mohali died a slow death due to government apathy that followed a fire in 1989 – barely five years after its launch.

In a social media post titled ‘The most tragic chapter in India’s tech history: Semiconductor Complex Ltd, Mohali’, Malviya said that in 1989 a mysterious fire gutted the SCL Mohali facility.

“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, incharge of BJP's National Information and Technology Department.

The BJP leader also attached a copy of an old parliamentary question in which the then Minister of State for Science and Technology K.R. Narayanan said that a preliminary estimate of the loss on account of the fire at SCL was about Rs 60 crore.

Giving an estimate of the setback due to the fire at SCL, Narayanan had said that the unit had a total staff strength of about 850 personnel and about 50 per cent were affected by the fire in terms of employment.

Malviya’s fresh attack on the Congress for ignoring semiconductor needs of the country comes a day after a bitter verbal duel with Congress MP and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on the issue.

Criticising PM Modi’s I-Day speech announcement that the first 'Made in India' chip will be rolled out by the end of this year, Ramesh 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."

On Saturday, Malviya 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 — semiconductors are among the hardest, most strategic industries to build. Progress has been made. Much more will follow,” said Malviya in his post on X.

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