New Delhi: The first day of the second leg of the Budget Session had a stormy beginning with both Houses of the Parliament being with both Houses of the Parliament getting adjourned till March 14 on Monday following ruckus over former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's "democracy in danger" speech in the UK.
The Upper House of the Parliament witnessed a verbal slugfest between the ruling BJP and Opposition members as allegations flew thick and fast over Rahul Gandhi's speech in the UK. Launching a scathing attack on Rahul without naming him Leader of the House and Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that when the whole world is praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and looking at India for solutions to its problem, a Lok Sabha member has defamed India in a foreign country.
"The world is speaking about India's PM. Even Italy's PM said that PM Modi is the most popular leader in the world. But a member of Lok Sabha is defaming India abroad. Until he apologises to the nation people will not forgive us," said Goyal.
His allegations were met with a sharp retort from the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge who raised a point of order demanding that Goyal's remarks be expunged from the records of House proceedings since they are in violation of an earlier ruling according to which no member of one house will make an allegation against a member of the other House.
"The members of one house should not use freedom of speech to make allegations against the members of the other House... Whatever he (Goyal) said should be expunged. Those are the rules and you (Chair) have to follow them," said Kharge amid slogans of "Rahul Gandhi maafi mango" raised by the BJP MPs.
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Taking potshots at the ruling BJP, senior Congress MP Digvijay Singh said that this is the first time in his illustrious political career, he is seeing the ruling party disrupting House proceedings.
Goyal countered the Congress charge by pointing out that he has not named anyone alleging that the Congress has "bad intentions" and hence they are associating someone with my remarks. " It is up to them to clarify whom they are referring to in relation to my remark," said Goyal. With both the ruling and Opposition party members resorting to slogan shouting, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar adjourned the House proceedings for the day.
Earlier in the day, dubbing Rahul's remarks as "rubbish" Goyal demanded that Rahul Gandhi should come to the House and apologise for his speech in London. Without directly naming Rahul Gandhi, Goyal continued his attack on the Congress MP alleging that democracy in India was in danger during the Emergency and when a Congress leader tore up a copy of legislation in Parliament.
The Union's Minister's charge drew a sharp reaction from Kharge who argued that the demand to call a leader who is not a member of the Rajya Sabha is unacceptable. During the ensuing ruckus, Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar adjourned the proceedings of the House till 2 pm.
As for Lok Sabha, it was adjourned for the day with BJP members demanding an apology from Rahul for his UK speech and Congress retaliating with a demand for a JPC probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue. With both sides refusing to budge from their stand, Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the Chair adjourned the proceedings for the day.
Earlier, soon after the Lower House convened for the day Defence Minister and Deputy Leader of Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh accused Rahul Gandhi of maligning India's image in London through his remarks on Indian democracy. Singh demanded that Rahul's remarks should be unequivocally condemned by the House. Rajnath's demand was loudly supported by NDA constituents.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi launched a blistering attack on Rahul and Congress asking where was democracy when an " Emergency was imposed in the country and fundamental rights were trampled upon? Where was a democracy when an ordinance approved by the Cabinet was torn apart (by Rahul Gandhi during the UPA regime).
At this point, Speaker Om Birla said that India is strong and is getting stronger. Stung by the attack from BJP, Congress members started raising slogans in protest following which the Speaker adjourned Lok Sabha proceedings till 2 pm.
