‘Trap deal’: Cong MPs protest against govt in Parliament complex
NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his speech in the Rajya Sabha, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the PM doesn’t have the courage to answer the questions posed to him and claimed that the government doesn’t want to run the House in a democratic manner.
Speaking with reporters, Kharge said “repeating falsehoods” has been Modi’s job and in his 97-minute reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, he didn’t say anything important or necessary.
“When we presented our statements on the President’s address, the prime minister didn’t respond to a single point. He just kept talking about 100 years… 75 years… 50 years,” Kharge said.
“When we got hold of Mr. (MM) Naravane’s book, how could those in power not have it? They’re saying in Parliament that the book hasn’t even been published yet. Whether it’s Amit Shah or Rajnath Singh… everyone kept repeating that the book doesn’t exist, but the reality is that the book does exist,” the Congress chief said.
When Rahul Gandhi spoke about Naravane’s ‘book’ in Parliament, for some reason, the entire ruling side felt offended, he said.
“I want to tell them: first, listen to the truth, then reply. The truth is that Narendra Modi doesn’t have the courage to answer the questions we’ve asked,” Kharge said.
“Modi said that we insulted the Sikhs. Meaning, a conversation between two people outside the House was labelled as an insult to the Sikhs,” he said.
“The Congress party respects Sikhs greatly; under a Congress government, Dr. Manmohan Singh served as Finance Minister and then Prime Minister, but Narendra Modi respects neither Sikhs, nor Dalits, nor Adivasis. The only thing in Narendra Modi’s mind is how to belittle others,” he alleged.
The founder of modern India, Jawaharlal Nehru, established the public sector, but Modi calls them factories that declare bankruptcy, he said, hitting out at the PM for his criticism of Nehru.
“When not a single watch was made in the country, it was the public sector that stepped up, but instead of saving the public sector, Narendra Modi worked to dismantle it.”
“Narendra Modi has no ideology. He has no vision for guiding the country,” Kharge alleged.
These statements show that Modi’s morale is broken, his sparkle has faded, Kharge claimed.
“If a person in the prime minister’s position uses abusive language against democracy and the country, that’s not a good thing. Narendra Modi is afraid of what questions Rahul (Gandhi) ji will ask, what he’ll say, what facts he’ll present, so Modi ji doesn’t even sit in the House,” he said.
“The Lok Sabha Speaker said-intelligence was received, so he advised Modi ji not to respond to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha.”
“If your intelligence is so good, where was it during terrorist attacks like Pulwama? Lynchings are happening across the country, attacks on Adivasis and Dalits are taking place. Where does this intelligence go then?” Kharge said.
Stalling Parliament for five days at a time is a failure of democracy, he said, blaming the government for the deadlock in the Lok Sabha.
“The Modi government doesn’t even want to run the House in a democratic manner,” he alleged.
“The truth is that over the past few days, Narendra Modi has been troubled because matters related to him have come up in the Epstein files. After that, Narendra Modi surrendered before Trump and struck a trade deal. He sacrificed the country’s farmers. Modi is making our people poor and making America’s farmers rich,” Kharge alleged.
Kharge’s remarks came a day after Prime Minister Modi accused the Congress of insulting the President of India by resorting to disruptions in the Lok Sabha during the debate on her address.
MPs STAGE PROTEST
MPs from the Congress and some other opposition parties staged a protest in the Parliament House complex on Friday over the trade agreement with the US, the controversy surrounding former Army chief MM Naravane’s unpublished memoir, and the suspension of eight MPs.
After the Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 11 am on Monday, the opposition MPs gathered near the Makar Dwar of Parliament and raised slogans such as “Dictatorship will not be tolerated,” “Narendra, surrender,” and “Stop murdering democracy.”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the MPs suspended for the remainder of the current Budget session of Parliament, and several other MPs participated in the protest.
They also held a large banner that read “Trap Deal,” referring to the India-US trade agreement.
While leaving the Parliament House complex, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at PM Modi and told reporters, “jo uchit samjho woh karo”.
Gandhi had on Wednesday cited Naravane’s unreleased memoir to claim that Prime Minister Modi shed responsibility during the India-China conflict in 2020 and passed the buck on to the general.
Congress whip in the Lok Sabha and one of the suspended MPs, Manickam Tagore, said the fight would be taken forward on the issue of Prime Minister Modi’s “failures.”
He claimed that Prime Minister Modi is “on the back foot” and afraid to come to the House and has succumbed to pressure from other countries. (PTI)
