Opposition walks out of Rajya Sabha, accuses Modi of misinformation

PTI, Jul 3, 2024, 4:39 PM IST

Flanked by INDIA bloc MPs after they staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday accused the RSS, the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP, of being anti-Constitution.

The Congress leader also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of giving wrong information in the House.

The MPs of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), who staged the walkout from the Upper House of Parliament in the middle of Modi’s reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the president’s address, gathered at the gate of the old Parliament building, the Samvidhan Sadan.

Besides Kharge, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and P Chidambaram, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Sagarika Ghose and Sushmita Dev, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Mahua Maji, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Manoj Jha and Shiv Sena-UBT’s Priyanka Chaturvedi were among those present.

“We staged a walkout because the prime minister, while replying to the debate on the president’s address, gave some wrong information…It is his habit to tell lies, mislead people and speak against the truth,” Kharge said.

“When the prime minister spoke on the Constitution.. I wanted to say, you did not write the Constitution, you were its opponent. I wanted to clarify who was for the Constitution and who was against it,” he added.

The Congress leader quoted an article from RSS mouthpiece “Organiser” from November 30, 1950 and claimed that the organisation had opposed the Constitution saying it does not have anything Indian.

“They had opposed and rejected the Constitution and now, they are talking about protecting it. They have been anti-Constitution since the beginning,” he said.

Maji said the opposition staged the walkout as the leader of opposition was not allowed to speak in the House.

“The prime minister made some objectionable remarks targeting the Congress. Khargeji repeatedly said he should be allowed to speak. He was not allowed by the chairman. All opposition leaders demanded that he should be allowed, but the chairman paid no heed,” the JMM leader said.

“The chairman does not look at the opposition. The leader of opposition felt insulted and so we staged a walkout,” she added.

Pramod Tiwari of the Congress said it is the tradition of the House to allow the leader of opposition to speak.

Dev said the BJP has shown disrespect to the constitutional post of the leader of opposition.

“A saga of lies in the address of the Prime Minister in Rajya Sabha. The opposition cannot be expected to sit through such a speech without a single opportunity to intervene,” Dev said in a post on X.

“BJP has shown utter disregard for the constitutional post of the LOP and remains dictatorial towards the opposition who sit in the house owing to their mandate and not at the mercy of the treasury benches,” the TMC leader said.

Led by the Congress, the INDIA bloc parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha after Kharge was not allowed to intervene during Modi’s speech.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar did not heed to Kharge’s requests that he should be allowed to speak, leading to the opposition MPs raising slogans.

Modi continued his speech amid the slogan-shouting.

This went on for some time with Kharge repeatedly pleading that he be allowed to speak.

When the permission did not come through, the INDIA bloc MPs walked out of the House.