Targeting Manmohan Singh for having termed demonetisation “loot” and “plunder”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said his predecessor knew “the art of bathing in a bathroom with a raincoat on”, stating that Dr. Singh remained untouched, while a series of scams were reported during the Congress regimes. Infuriated by the remarks, the Congress members walked out of the Rajya Sabha.
Following the Prime Minister’s comments during his reply to a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, a senior Congress leader told The Hindu that the party would boycott Mr. Modi for the foreseeable future.
After the PM’s address, members of the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties and the Janata Dal (United) also walked out complaining that they were not allowed to respond to Mr. Modi’s comments.
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In his address, Mr. Modi said: “In the past 35 years, Dr. Singh was directly involved in the decision-making on the country’s economy. And several scams were reported — we politicians have a lot to learn from doctor saheb — despite all that there was not even a single blot on him.”
Later, the Congress demanded that Mr. Modi apologise to the House.
Stating that he was capable of paying back in the same coin, while remaining within the limits of the Constitution, the Prime Minister said “when a person, having held such a high position, used words like loot and plunder in the House”, the other side should have been prepared for the response if it crossed the limits of decorum.
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Criticising the Opposition parties, the Prime Minister said attempts were made to instigate the people, but despite all the inconveniences they underwent, they fully backed the government on the issue of demonetisation as they knew that it was in the national interest.
Mr. Modi said while the Congress members found fault with the current state of the economy and infrastructure, they were presenting the “report card” of the governments in the past 70 years. “And in these 70 years, my contribution is for only two-and-half years,” he said. Stating that he loathed the approach of looking at all the issues negatively, Mr. Modi said, to change the mindset, politicians should explore opportunities for making positive contributions by beginning from wherever possible.
Just because there would be inconvenience, they could not shy away from taking decisions for the country’s development