Parliament disrupted as BJP raises ‘Cong-Soros links’, demands debate
Both Houses of Parliament continued to suffer disruptions on Monday as the ruling BJP upped the ante on the issue of alleged Congress links with Hungarian-American businessman George Soros and demanded a debate on the matter.
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were both adjourned until noon and then again till 2 pm with the BJP MPs demanding a debate on reports that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had ties with organisations financed by the George Soros Foundation.
The Congress dismissed the charge saying "we are patriots".
The BJP, however, said the issue was "serious and had national security implications" and needed to be viewed from that prism.
The stage for the BJP to raise the issue in Parliament was set earlier on Monday when Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the alleged connections between Sonia Gandhi and Soros were a matter of serious concern.
"It is an important issue I want to raise without indulging in politics. The links between Sonia Gandhi and George Soros are serious. We do not want to see it from a political prism. We want to run Parliament and clarify that some issues are politically driven. If external powers try to act against India it is a matter of serious concern," Rijiju said, reacting to some reports accusing Sonia Gandhi of ties with the Soros foundation.
The ruling BJP leaders said Soros had claimed to have set aside USD 1 million to dislodge Narendra Modi and was fomenting trouble in Kashmir.
After Rijiju raised the issue outside Parliament, BJP MPs brought it up in the two houses demanding a debate.
In Rajya Sabha, Sudhanshi Trivedi of the BJP who had last week accused leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi of links with Soros, today alleged that the Congress was hand-in-glove with anti-national forces.
Senior BJP MPs Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and Ghanshyam Tiwari and ally JDU leader Sanjay Jha sought a debate on the issue in the house.
Earlier, Congress president and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge dismissed all accusations of the BJP and said they should not speak of "members not present in the House".
At this moment, chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar as well as Trivedi asked Kharge who he was referring to.
"We have not mentioned any Congress leader by name. Mr Kharge's appeal not to mention absentee members is an admission of guilt that those absentees are involved in the conspiracy against India," Trivedi said.
Sonia Gandhi was absent from the Rajya Sabha today being her birthday.
