Rahul doea a Modi on Modi; Rahul Gandhi’s big moment in the House. Rahul’s rousing speech during no-trust vote; attacks Modi, then walks across to hug him Congress president Rahul Gandhi concluded his fiery speech in Lok Sabha on Friday by giving an unexpected hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was speaking on the no-confidence motion moved against the government in Parliament. During his speech Gandhi attacked Modi government raising various issues including the Rafale deal, unemployment, demonetisation, and women's safety.
After tearing into the BJP-led government in his speech during the no confidence motion on Friday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi walked across to the ruling benches and hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, taking everyone in the Lok Sabha by surprise.
“I have not an iota of hatred or hard feelings against you. You hate me. You may call me Pappu, you can use a stream of expletives for me. But I don’t hate you or have even slightest of anger for you. I am the Congress,” Gandhi said at the end of his nearly 40-minute fiery speech.
Gandhi accused Modi of lying to the nation and making empty rhetoric “jumlas” to deceive the poor of the country. He also lashed out at the government and questioned Modi’s silence over women not feeling safe in the country and people from the minority communities being lynched.
Gandhi said the Prime Minister and BJP President Amit Shah were different type of politicians unlike those from the Congress.
“We are okay with winning and losing, staying in and out of power. But they cannot afford to lose power. They fear losing power. It is this fear that is turning into anger… But I will turn this anger into love because I am the Congress,” he said.
Resuming his speech after a brief adjournment, Gandhi said some opposition MPs congratulated him for speaking “really well’.
“I was surprised when your own members shook my hand and said, ‘you spoke really well’. This voice is also there within you. This voice doesn’t exist just within us. This Akali Dal leader (pointing towards Harsimrat Kaur) was looking at me and smiling. This feeling is there in the entire country. Our job is to connect these feelings.
“The entire opposition and a few people among you.. together we are going to defeat the Prime Minister in the election.
“You may think there is anger, hatred in my heart for the prime minister. But, I want to say this from the bottom of my heart that I am very grateful to the Prime Minister, the BJP and the RSS. They made me understand the meaning of the Congress. They taught me the meaning of being a Hindustani.
“Hindustani means – one may say or do anything against you, one may tell a lie or abuse you or use a lathi against you, but you will show love towards them. Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS have taught me this. I would like to thank you for this from the bottom of my heart.
“You taught me my religion, made me understand the meaning of Shivji, you made me understand the meaning of being a Hindu. I want to thank you for this.
“This is the history of our country. You may have hatred and anger towards me. The Congress and this very feeling has built this nation. Don’t forget this. This feeling is there within all of you, and I will bring it out from all of you. I will bring out that love that is there within you and I will turn all of you into the Congress.”
Gandhi then walked across to the ruling benches and hugged Modi who was taken by surprise. The Congress leader was heard telling the Prime Minister to get up and allow him to do “pranaam” to him.
The Prime Minister was taken aback at first and gestured as if asking Gandhi why he was there. But the Congress President bent over, threw his arms around Modi and hugged him tight.
A visibly nonplussed Modi hugged him back. After recovering from an apparent shock moment, the Prime Minister called Gandhi back towards him and the two shook their hands. He patted Gandhi on his back and exchanged a word or two with him, smilingly.
As the opposition members gave Gandhi a standing ovation and thumped their desks, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said such a conduct was against the rules of the House.
Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal questioned Gandhi for saying she was smiling at him when he was speaking. “This is Parliament and not a ‘pappi jhappi’ scene of Munna Bhai,” she said, mocking at him.
Speaker Mahajan said but “you were smiling” when Gandhi was speaking. There was a burst of laughter in the House.
By this time Gandhi had returned to his seat amid a loud cheer from his Congress colleagues. He was seen winking at Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh.
Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister accusing him of launching “jumla strikes”, being a “bhagidaar and not chowkidar” and said he had been benefiting his “industralist friends” while ignoring the youth, farmers, Dalits and women.
The Congress chief, who spoke for around 45 minutes, said he was very respectful to the BJP and its ideological patron for teaching him the meaning of Congress and being a Hindu and said while they could be angry and call him “Pappu” but he will remove this feeling from them and turn them towards the Congress.
He sought to tear into the BJP’s poll plank of national security and said Modi had been “untruthful” on the Rafale fighter jet deal and had “betrayed the soldiers” by not raising the Doklam stand off with China during his visit for an informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Referring to TDP member Jayadev Galla, who spoke before him, Gandhi said his party was a victim of a political weapon called “jumla strike”.
“First a great sense of happiness, excitement, then a feeling of shock, then eight-hour long speech. The victims are farmers, youth, Dalits, tribals and women,” he said.
Gandhi, whose speech was repeatedly interrupted by BJP members, said Galla had rightly noted that the words of the Prime Minister should carry weight.
Throwing repeated barbs at Modi who sometimes smiled, the Congress leader said the Prime Minister had given people “jumlas” by promising Rs 15 lakh in account of people and generating two crore jobs every year.
He also targeted the government over demonetisation and said Congress wanted that there should be one GST rate and petroleum products should be covered in it.
He said Modi had called himself the “chowkidar of the country” but he was silent when there was 16,000 time rise in the turnover of a company linked to Amit Shah’s son.
Gandhi, who spoke forcefully but with ease, said India is not being able to protect its women for the first time in its history and its reputation was being besmirched.
“There are atrocities against Dalits, minorities and adivasis. People are being killed, beaten up, lynched, exploited, but PM doesn’t speak a word. Their minister goes and garlands them (the convicts).
Terming Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s allegations over the Rafale fighter jets deal with France as “absolutely wrong”, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the bilateral agreement was signed during the UPA time and carried a secrecy clause.
“On the secrecy clause…It is an agreement that was signed during the previous government on January 25, 2008. The agreement of secrecy, which is an umbrella agreement, was signed by then Defence Minister A.K. Antony,” Sitharam said, flashing some papers in the House, purportedly a copy of the agreement.
“This agreement clearly mentions that under Article 10 of inter-governmental agreement (IGA) between India and France on the purchase of Rafale aircraft, the protection of classified information and materials exchanged under IGA shall be governed by the provisions of security agreements signed on January 25, 2008,” she said.
Sitharaman was making an intervention after Rahul Gandhi attacked the government on the Rafale deal during the no confidence motion in the Lok Sabha and alleged that she had lied when she claimed that the Indian government could not reveal details of the deal due to a secrecy pact with France.
Referring to Gandhi’s claim of a meeting with French President, Sitharaman said there was no proof of the said meeting but whatever she was saying could be double checked.
“The honorable MP (Rahul Gandhi) referred to a conversation between him and the French President. I don’t know what transpired between the two. But I would like to say in one of the interviews to an Indian media House the French President has said: ‘You have these commercial agreements and obviously you have competitors and we can’t let them know the details of the deal’,” she said.
“This can be checked. Whatever the Member (Gandhi) said, there is no record, no proof. He just threw it at me…absolutely wrong,” she added.
India had signed a government-to-government deal with France in 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of about Rs 58,000 crore.
The Congress has been demanding that its details be made public, claiming that the cost of each Rafale jet under the deal negotiated by the UPA government was much lower than that agreed upon by the Modi government in 2016. (IANS)