New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday once again witnessed a stormy session and was adjourned till 11 a.m. on Tuesday after repeated disruptions by the opposition demanding that Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi be allowed to speak. The Congress leader alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scared to come to the House, not because of the members, but because of what he was saying.
The standoff erupted during the Budget Session as Rahul Gandhi sought to raise issues beyond the budget, including references to former Army Chief’s book, which the Speaker disallowed.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju accused the opposition of stalling proceedings despite assurances that debate time would be provided under House rules. The deadlock continues into the second week of the Budget Session.
For the sixth consecutive day over Rahul not being allowed to speak on former Indian Army chief General MM Naravane’s book even as the Speaker held a couple of meetings with the Leader of Opposition and other leaders to find a middle ground to allow the scheduled general discussion on the Union budget.
Inside the House, Rahul spoke about Birla agreeing to allow him to speak on the issues but BJP MP Sandhya Rai, who was chairing the proceedings, said the agenda shared with her does not mention it and disallowed it before adjourning the House for the day.
Rijiju then rose and said that the agreement was that if the LoP raises the issue and makes allegations against the Speaker, other floor leaders will also be allowed to speak and the government would respond.
After a meeting he along with senior Opposition leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Abhishek Banerjee among others had with Birla after the House adjourned, Rahul said that the “agreement” is that he will be allowed to raise four points – Naravane’s book, Nishikant Dubey’s allegations citing books, suspension of eight MPs and claims of MPs attacking the Prime Minister – on Tuesday.
He pointed out that the story started a few days ago when the issue of the Naravane book came, and the government didn’t want him to discuss that at all.
“So they stalled the House. They didn’t let me speak. That happened three or four times. First, they said that I cannot quote a book. Then I said I’m not quoting a book, I’m quoting a magazine. Then they said you cannot quote a magazine. Then I said I’ll speak about it. Then they didn’t want me to speak about it. The Defence Minister said, falsely, that the book has not been published. In fact, the book has been published and we’ve got a copy of it also. So that is one big issue. Not allowing the LoP and the entire opposition to speak in the president’s address,” he said
The Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli said that the second issue is that one of their members (Nishikant Dubey) spoke, quoting books, multiple books, spoke very vile stuff, and nothing was said.
“We don’t like the fact that they can say whatever they want, whenever they want, and the opposition cannot. The third issue is the suspension of our members. And the final issue, which we are very disturbed about, is this idea that has been floated that members were going to threaten the Prime Minister. There’s no question of that,” he said.
The former Congress chief alleged that the fact is very clear.
“The Prime Minister was scared to come to the House, not because of the members, but because of what I was saying. He’s still scared because he cannot face the truth. There’s no question of our members attacking the Prime Minister. He should have the courage to come. I also mentioned that if somebody said that he’s going to attack the Prime Minister, then please do an FIR at once. Arrest that person. Why are you not doing that? So that’s basically what’s happened,” he added.
