Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed his displeasure over repeated disruption of proceedings in Parliament by the Congress-led Opposition on a host of issues ranging from Hyderabad research scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the recent JNU row while replying on the Motion of Thanks to President Pranab Mukherjee’s address in Lok Sabha.
“I am new, you are experienced. Come, let us work together for the country,” PM Modi said as he replied to a discussion on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha.
“I realised after coming here how deep-rooted the poverty is. I said last time too that no one can deny that if we had done welfare for the poor in the country in the last 60 years of rule, they wouldn’t have to carry mud or dig ditches. MNREGA is not our success. All of us will have to accept it,” the PM said.
“It would be great if we uphold parliamentary traditions. Debate will be more fruitful if procedure is followed. These are not my words, this was said by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,” PM Modi said while replying to the motion of thanks to President’s address.
PM Modi also referred to India’s first Prime Minister Nehru and his speeches in Parliament and urged the opposition to help the government pass crucial legislations, including the Goods and Services Tax bill.
“If house maintains decorum, we will be able to put our point of view in a better manner,” he said.
“The ordinance was torn apart when the then honourable prime minister Manmohan Singh was in the US to meet (Barack) Obama…Please learn to respect elders,” PM Modi said. Rahul Gandhi sat across the hall in the opposition benches, listening.
BJP lawmakers thumped their desks and the opposition booed; PM Modi added, “It is easy to advise, difficult to practice.”
The Prime Minister Modi said he was being criticised because the Congress was “jealous that his “government has done in two years what they didn’t in 60 years”.
PM Modi’s reply comes in the wake of a united Opposition’s scathing on the NDA government and the continuous disruption of proceedings in both Houses of Parliament in the past few days.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had yesterday slammed Prime Minister Modi during a debate on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha.
Gandhi assailed the ruling dispensation when Prime Minister Modi was not in the house and nor were most of his front-line ministers, but the Congress vice president named them all and accused the Prime Minister of listening to none, including his ministers.
Responding to Gandhi’s allegations, the BJP criticised him for his lack of knowledge and attack on the government in the Lok Sabha, saying it was ‘full of drama but lacked in content’, and dubbed the Congress vice president a lying machine” and a “non-serious, part-time politician”.
