As Parliament continued to remain gridlocked on the demonetisation issue, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised an “earthquake” if he was permitted to speak in the Lok Sabha on what he described as the “biggest scam.” Mr. Gandhi said he would reveal in the House what was really behind the move to scrap high denomination notes.
Speaking to journalists outside Parliament, Mr. Gandhi said his party wanted a debate on demonetisation so that the truth would come to the fore, but the government was running away from it. If he got a chance to speak on the issue in the House, he said “the Prime Minister will not be able to even sit there.”
“The Prime Minister is giving speeches across the country but is afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha,” he continued, wondering what could be the reason for this “nervousness.”
This challenge invited a sharp response from the government. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said a debate on demonetisation, under rule 193 (that doesn’t entail voting), had already been listed: Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP Jitendra Reddy had moved it, and Mr. Gandhi could have participated in that debate instead of asking for one under rule 184 (the latter involves voting), Mr. Kumar said.
Crux of the dispute
However, that has been the crux of the dispute between the government and the opposition — whether it should be a debate that entails voting or not.
The Opposition has maintained all along that it cannot understand why the government is afraid to face a vote in the Lok Sabha, when it enjoys a majority there. The only reason, as Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi suggested on Friday, was that the government was not sure of its allies’ position and was therefore “running scared.”
Already, Uddhav Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena is part of the NDA, has made his displeasure on demonetisation clear to the government. His party has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
On Friday morning, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on the issue but there were no signs of an end to the 16-day deadlock in Parliament.
Shortly after the meeting, the Congress made it clear that there had been no toning down of its demand for having a discussion on demonetisation under the rule entailing voting in the Lok Sabha and ensuring the presence of the Prime Minister during the debate in the Rajya Sabha.
Meanwhile, the government’s floor managers — stung by the criticism of its margdarshak L.K. Advani that they did not know how to run the House — used Mr. Gandhi’s remarks to train their guns on him.
“If Rahul Gandhi thinks 9th December is the first day of Parliament, he is mistaken,” Mr. Kumar said.
“A total of 19 sittings are over... We are asking the Congress, the TMC and the Left from November 16 to participate in a discussion on demonetisation.. They have not shown any inclination to do that.”
“Suddenly, today Rahul Gandhi came prepared. When they come prepared, they feel that all the business of the House be suspended forthwith and he should address. That doesn't happen. That is the way Congress can run, but not Parliament of India,” he added.
The Minister claiming that a debate under a rule that entails voting and one that does not is not substantively different, said, “Once again I appeal, rather than raising bogeys, changing goalposts and exclamation of bravado like earthquake, holding earth shattering revelation for so long is not good.”
