Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 20
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no escape in Lok Sabha on Friday when a confident Congress president Rahul Gandhi, after finishing his speech on the no-confidence motion, sprinted towards him and gave him a hug.
A visibly uncomfortable PM kept sitting and shrugged while Gandhi embraced him. But just when the Congress president turned around to leave, Modi called him back, patted his shoulder and shook his hand.
“This is the meaning of being a Hindu. This is what being an Indian means. For you I may be Pappu and you may hate me but I have no anger or rancour in my heart for you or for the Prime Minister. It is this love, which is latent in all of you and I will bring this love out of you,” said Gandhi after hugging the PM in front of a stupefied house.
Throughout his speech today, Gandhi leading the offensive against the PM, targeted the latter personally accusing him of “benefiting his business friends in the Rafale deal” and asking him why the cost of the Rafale aircraft was revised upwards and with whose permission.
At one point Gandhi referred to a personal meeting he had with the French President to claim that the Government has been “lying “ about having a secrecy pact with France as an excuse to not reveal the pricing mechanism of the fighter jets.
The accusations by Gandhi didn’t stop here with the Congress leader labelling direct and personal allegations of “quid pro quo” on the PM, who first smiled at the Amethi MP but later got serious as allegations kept coming.
“The PM is not a chowkidaar. He is a bhaagidaar. Everyone knows the relationship the PM has with businessmen. They pay for his marketing. One of his friends was given the Rafale contract and benefitted to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore. The contract was taken away from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. PM benefitted crores from this. He must explain why this contract was given to his businessman,” said Gandhi as the entire treasury bench erupted into pandemonium demanding evidence for the statements made.
Uproar gripped the house with the Speaker adjourning it for about seven minutes as the Government cited rules that disallow any MP from making allegations that are unsubstantiated.
As the house resumed Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister, rose to demolish Gandhi’s “secrecy clause” argument citing copies of government orders that showed the secrecy clause was actually signed by former defence minister of the Congress led UPA regime AK Antony.
“We are only following the clause. Also we have no evidence of the purported meeting between the MP and French President but the latter in an interview to Indian media had said he could not reveal details of commercial agreement regarding Rafale because there are competitors. Therefore what Mr Gandhi says about what the French President told him is immaterial,” Sitharaman said.
Gandhi used the occasion to turn the debate around for political posturing as he spiced up his act with a hug to the PM and earlier with a scripted speech which he began by that the BJP was using 21st century political weapon on everyone.
Looking at TDP Leader Jaydev Galla who moved the no confidence motion at 11 am and initiated the debate demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh, Gandhi said, “You are also a victim of the BJP’s 21st century political weapon and you are not alone. There are many victims of BJP ‘s jumlas, the weapon .”
As a faintly smiling PM watched, Gandhi began counting his “jumlas” — jumla number one (Rs 15 lakh in every account), jumla 2 (two crore jobs to youth), jumla 3 (MSP) Et al.
With Gandhi unstoppable in his tirade of the PM, the ruling BJP remained mostly provoked into sloganeering and hooting with Parliamentary affairs Minister Ananth Kumar eventually quoting rules to say “MPs must give prior notice if they intend to make allegations against ministers or the PM and the MP must produce evidence of what he is saying.”
The Speaker admitted the Government’s point and told the house she will expunge from proceedings wherever she feels is unsubstantiated and defamatory.
Earlier today the BJD abstained from the house soon as the motion was taken up and the Shiv Sena was also conspicuous by its absence.
TDP’s Galla while initiating the motion thanked AAP, AIMIM, Congress, TMC, Left, Kerala Congress, NCP, RJD and SP for backing the motion.
In his nearly 1.5 hour initiation Galla attacked the PM for not keeping his word to Andhra and denying it the special status despite promising to award one during his election speeches in the stage in 2014.
“Should the word of the PM have no value,” Galla asked.
The initial part of the debate on the motion was all about political muscle flexing on both sides with the BJP speaker who preceded Gandhi using the event to list out the successes of BJP governments in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh and asking the opposition what the basis of their no confidence vote was.
“The opposition has no basis for this vote except to try and stop the victory march of PM Modi who is working for the poor and the marginalised,” said BJP’s member from Madhya Pradesh Rakesh Singh who laid the ground for the upcoming polls in the three BJP rules states and later for General elections 2019 as part of the party’s plan today.
While the BJP tore into the Congress for giving India one family rule for 48 years and doing nothing for the country, Congress chief Gandhi deftly employed the art of drama, theatre and political grandstanding to say what he wanted and to attack the PM for demonetisation, GST, lack of women’s safety and mob lynching.
This is the first time in India’s history that women have felt so unsafe, claimed the Gandhi scion inviting sharp rebuttals from his rival in Amethi and minister Smriti Irani who asked “Have you forgotten 2012?”
Overall, Gandhi’s pre planned “hug” of the PM became the dominant visual of the pre 3 pm debate on the motion with everyone talking about it and its potential impact.
An invariably confident PM personally looked acutely unnerved.
And though Minister Harsimrat Badal tried to make light of the act saying “this is Parliament and not Munna Bhai’s pappi-jhappi area”, Gandhi had played his game.
Not just that the Congress leader embarrassed Badal and many BJP members when he claimed in the Lok Sabha, “Many MPs of BJP just congratulated me saying I spoke very well. What I am saying is what everyone is feeling. Even Harsimrat ji was smiling when I was talking,” Gandhi said as voices from the saffron camp said “have you gone mad?”
The Congress president also said he was thankful to BJP and RSS for teaching him the meaning of being a Hindu and the meaning of Congress.
It now remains to be seen how the PM counters Gandhi’s theatre when he replies to the debate later this evening.
Though the Speaker has fixed 6 pm for the voting, proceedings will likely last till tonight midnight with each speaker overshooting the time allotted to make their point.