‘Jo uchit samjha woh kiya… scared of truth’: Rahul takes jibe at Modi

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on X described the PM’s address as “another election rally speech, overflowing with abuses and assaults, distortions and dramatics, innuendos and insults — and of course his usual quota of blatant and brazen lies. His self-obsession and his fixation on dialogue-baazi and demagoguery was on full display.”

After 5 pm, in a packed Rajya Sabha as PM Modi rose to speak, the Opposition bench also looked combative. Mic off, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge tried repeatedly to draw the attention of Chairman

C P Radhakrishnan to allow him to make his interventions before the PM’s speech.

The Chair disallowed and the PM proceeded to speak. A dozen Opposition MPs in the two front rows rose — including Congress’s Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari, Rajiv Shukla, Syed Naseer Hussain, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi and Digvijaya Singh, SP’s Fauzia Khan, CPI(M)’s John Brittas, RJD’s A D Singh, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and Haris Beeran from the IUML.

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party MPs Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh and DMK MP Tiruchi Siva during a Budget Session-related meet on Thursday. (PTI)

For the next 10 minutes, they raised slogans like ‘tanashahi nahi chalegi’, ‘democracy pe hamla nahi chalega’, ‘LoP ko bolne do’, ‘Nehru ka apmaan nahi sahenge’ and ‘vipaksh ki awaaz nahi dabegi’. ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, countered members of the Treasury benches amid the PM’s address.

As the din continued, for a mo­ment, though, Modi paused. He urged the Chairman to “please permit Kharge ji to sloganeer while sitting” considering his age. “I want to convey something to the prime minister,” Kharge said, his mic still off. “If you don’t allow it, we will walk out.” All the 14 Opposition MPs then converged behind Kharge and walked out as the chamber reverberated with their slogans.

Some Opposition MPs, however, including Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT), Ramji Gautam of BSP and Swati Maliwal of AAP, remained inside.

Outside the Makar Dwar, each member separately spoke to reporters explaining what triggered the walkout, reflecting a cohesive opposition which “is not getting a voice inside the House”. Targeting Modi, Kharge said, “… one man speaks in the House. He is given a mic, he hurls abuses and the government stays silent. Has the BJP ever condemned this?” “That’s why the leaders of the Opposition parties decided if they won’t let us speak, then we should walk out, we should protest.”

Tiruchi Siva underlined that Gandhi and Kharge, both LoPs, “are not being respected”. “So instead of being there, we all staged the walkout.”

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More

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