The Congress and other Opposition parties have moved a privilege motion against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Rajya Sabha for allegedly misleading the House over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lahore visit in 2015, and a speech at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia the same year.
Ms. Swaraj has been accused of providing “wrong information on the Bandung Asia Africa Relations Conference”. The parties said that that though the Minister had said that she did not deliver any speech at the summit, they had downloaded the transcript of a purported speech, which they would attach as proof.
However, Ms. Swaraj said the speech the Opposition was referring to was delivered at another Afro-Asian Conference, which was held separately. “These were two different conferences,” she said.
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The government and the Opposition clashed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday over India’s statement at the summit. Senior Congress MP Anand Sharma, backed by Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien, said Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh had failed to mention former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his speech at the conference.. Nehru was one of the founder members of the Bandung Conference in 1955.
The Opposition has also taken issue with the Minister’s statement to the House that there had been no terror incidents after Mr. Modi’s visit to Lahore in December 2015. Pointing out that the Pathankot terror attack took place immediately after the Prime Minister’s visit, the Opposition said that there had also been five other terror-related incidents since then.
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Mr. Sharma also wanted to know why Mr. Modi made that visit to Pakistan. “You were going to Afghanistan and got down at Lahore mid-way; till date the Prime Minister hasn’t told the nation what talks took place. On one hand, you get miffed and cancel talks after Pakistan invites separatists because of a tea party; on the other hand, you make a dramatic visit breaching all protocols.”