Countering the BJP’s narrative that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had insulted the country on foreign soil, the Congress party at a meeting chaired by Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday listed out six instances when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken “against” the country while on his trips abroad as Prime Minister.
Mr. Dhankhar had called a meeting of the floor leaders to deliberate on a point of order raised by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday, citing 1967 and 1983 rulings by the previous Chairpersons prohibiting members from making “allegations and charges against members of other House”. Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil on Tuesday moved a breach of privilege notice against the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, who, without naming Mr. Gandhi, had said that a “Lok Sabha MP” had denigrated the Indian Parliament and other Constitutional institutions, and sought an apology from him. Mr. Goyal has repeatedly reiterated his statement over the course of two days. “It is pertinent to note that Piyush Goyal repeatedly spoke about hon’ble Member of Lok Sabha and kept on stating facts which were not true. Mr. Goyal criticised a Member of Lok Sabha without truth and was intentionally going on with derogatory remarks,” Mr. Gohil stated in his notice.
Mr. Dhankhar had reserved his ruling in both cases and had invited floor leaders of all parties at 2.30 p.m. to discuss them. While speaking in the House, Mr. Dhankhar said, “This is a critical issue because it will define what we can debate and what we can’t debate.” The Chairperson has also asked for further clarification from the Mr. Gohil and asked him to quote Mr. Goyal’s exact remarks that constitute breach of privilege.
During the meeting, sources said, Congress’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, cited seven instances when Mr. Modi during his Prime Ministerial visits to other countries had spoken “ill” about the country. He reportedly cited the Prime Minister’s comments made during his trip to China and Seoul in 2015, where Mr. Modi had reportedly said that “earlier people were ashamed of being born an Indian but now they felt proud to represent the country”. Mr. Tiwari also cited the Prime Minister’s remarks made in Canada, France, Japan and Berlin, where he had spoken about the all-pervasive corruption in the country and the lack of cleanliness.
Sources said that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) steered clear of the argument over whether the actions of a member from the Lok Sabha could be debated in the Upper House or not. Instead, they said that other important issues such as inflation and unemployment, imperilling the federal structure, the risk to which investments by the State Bank of India (SBI) and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in the Adani Group had been put, the Indo-China stand-off, and so on, needed to be deliberated in the Rajya Sabha.
