Rahul Gandhi stands up to bullying by treasury benches; Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Kiren Rijiju join chorus to interrupt LoP in Lok Sabha
NEW DELHI – Taking strong exception to attempts by treasury benches, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Speaker Om Birla, to interrupt and prevent Rahul from speaking in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the ideological foundation of the RSS-BJP was based on concealing facts. That is precisely why, he said, the Narendra Modi government was avoiding addressing serious questions on national security in Parliament as if someone had touched a raw nerve.
He said Rahul Gandhi had raised a very serious issue related to national security in the House.
Kharge referred to the attempts by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members to put the national security under the carpet, an act that forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha thrice on Monday. The adjournment followed repeated interruptions by the ruling party members, including Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of national security, referred to the Eastern Ladakh confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops on August 31, 2020, and cited revelations from a magazine quoting excerpts from a book by former Army Chief Gen Manoj M Naravane.
Rahul Gandhi was repeatedly interrupted by the treasury benches and not allowed to speak. While the Leader of the Opposition stood firm to speak out on the matter of national security, the treasury benches interrupted him again and again. Finally, the House was adjourned for the day.
Right from the moment Rahul rose to speak, the treasury benches got unnerved, with Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju leading the treasury benches and repeatedly interrupting Rahul’s speech.
As he refused to be cowed down by the bullying by the treasury benches, Speaker Birla adjourned the House.
Amid repeated bullying and disruptions, Rahul told the treasury benches that they were trying to hide something which every soldier across the country already knew. “What happened is known to every soldier. You are trying to hide it from the people,” he told the treasury benches.
Responding to the Speaker’s repeated assertions that he should speak on the President’s Address, Rahul told him that he was very much speaking about it, as he was talking about national security, which was the theme of the President’s Address.
Asserting that he was raising the matter of national security, which is the most important issue, he said that he understood the defence minister and the prime minister were not comfortable with his raising such an important matter. “If it was comfortable for the prime minister and the defence minister, then they (treasury benches) would let me speak,” he said, adding, “the fact that they are not letting me speak means it is uncomfortable for them.”
He wondered as to what was in his words that both the prime minister and the home minister chose not to be part of the proceedings of the House post adjournment. “This is a memoir. The government is not allowing it to be published,” he said, adding, “they claim to fight terrorism, but they are afraid of one quote.”
“Which rule says I cannot speak about India-China relations during the discussion on the President’s Address?” he asked, and disclosed that Rajnath Singh was aware of the matter as he had spoken to General Naravane.
Later, Rahul told reporters that the ruling party was scared of just one line he was to quote and asserted that he would say it in Parliament and nobody could stop him. “They are scared of a line. There is one line in it that PM Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are scared of. I will say that line inside Parliament, and no one can stop me,” he said.
“The leader of the country is supposed to give direction. The leader of the country is not supposed to run away from decisions and leave decisions to other people’s shoulders. That is what the prime minister has done,” he further added while referring to General Naravane’s autobiography.
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s assertion, Kharge asked: “What is written in the former army chief’s book that is making senior ministers of the Modi government so nervous?” He added, “Who is preventing his book from being published?”
Kharge noted that the whole country knows that the BJP’s nationalism is fake. “They talk big about patriotism, but after the supreme sacrifice of our 20 soldiers in Galwan in 2020, Modi himself gave a clean chit to China. Isn’t this true?” he asked.
Hasn’t the country been taken into confidence on issues related to national security and foreign policy in Parliament before, he asked, saying why those who talk about the “Mother of Democracy” were bent on trampling on the soul of democracy.
