New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Lok Sabha on Monday saw a heated exchange between the Congress and the ruling BJP over former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane’s “unpublished” book on the Doklam stand-off between India and China in 2020.
As the war of words escalated into a direct face-off between LoP Rahul Gandhi and top Union Ministers, Speaker Om Birla, seeing no signs of abatement and let-up in the stand-off, adjourned the House till 3 p.m. Gandhi, who initiated the Opposition’s response to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, started his speech by quoting some ‘uncomfortable truths’ about the India-China 2020 stand-off at the border, purportedly from an “unverified: book.
However, he was interrupted, within minutes of his speech, first by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and then Home Minister Amit Shah and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
While the Congress MP stated that the article published in a leading magazine was based on memoirs penned by former Army chief Naravane, and hence deserved to be put into the public domain, Rajnath Singh disputed his claim and said that the book has never been published, and this amounted to misleading and misguiding the House.
But Gandhi persisted with the charge and accused the government of blocking the book from getting published. Congress MPs stood up in his support, seeking the Speaker allow him to quote from the contentious book, which purportedly mentions “Chinese tanks in Doklam”.
This prompted a counter from Home Minister Amit Shah and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, who called it a gross violation of Parliamentary rules. The House witnessed chaotic scenes for quite some time, as both the opposition and treasury benches fought over the rulebook and why citing any claims from an unverified source was uncalled for.
The Speaker tried to reason with the Opposition, but the latter was unrelenting in its demands. As the House pandemonium continued, the House was adjourned till 3 p.m.
-IAN
