Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi, made scathing remarks against Rahul Gandhi on Friday immediately after the latter targeted the Prime Minister in his press conference for his speech and said that PM was 'shamelessly' laughing in parliament.
Joshi, hitting out at the grand old party and Rahul Gandhi, said, "Congress & other opposition parties never thought that we would agree for a discussion on Manipur...Like PM Narendra Modi & Union Home Minister Amit Shah said we should be sensitive about the issue."
Slamming Gandhi for his comments in the press conferenceToday, as well what all has Rahul Gandhi said. I think Rahul Gandhi lost his mental balance, it appears like that...He has not heard the reply. He did not come to the House...It is very unfortunate that the so-called grand old party is behaving so irresponsibly..."
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ridiculing Manipur and its women. The Congress leader's came down heavily on the prime minister during a press conference.
"The Prime Minister of India is sitting in the Parliament shamelessly and laughing," Gandhi said at the press conference.
'PM Modi joked and mocked'
Gandhi said that the prime minister joked and mocked in the Parliament throughout his more than two-hour long speech.
"Yesterday the PM spoke in Parliament for about 2 hours 13 minutes. In the end, he spoke on Manipur for two minutes," Gandhi noted. "Manipur has been burning for months, people are being killed, rapes are happening but the PM was laughing, cracking jokes."
He also said that watching PM Modi make ridiculous remarks in the Parliament does not do justice to the post of Indian prime minister.
'PM wants Manipur to burn'
Accusing PM Modi of wanting Manipur to burn, the Congress leader questioned why the Indian Army was not deployed in the riot-hit state.
"Modi wants to stoke fire in Manipur and not extinguish it," Gandhi said.
The Army would be able to contain the situation in the state within a day; however, PM Modi did not want to do that, according to Gandhi.
"I have never heard/seen anywhere in India, never been told that if you take this person as a security officer with you, we will put a bullet in his head. I heard it twice in Manipur. That means there is no dialogue in Manipur, there is pure violence taking place in Manipur. The first step is to stop violence and put an end to it...What I mean is that the PM has multiple instruments in his hands, he is not using them. He is not doing anything and he is laughing," Gandhi said.
'Interesting that Bharat Mata word expunged from Parliament'
The Congress leader also questioned the reasoning behind expunging of the word 'Bharat Mata' from the Parliament. In his speech on Wednesday, Gandhi said that "Bharat Mata was murdered by the government in Manipur."
The word was subsequently removed from the Parliament records.
"It is very is interesting that the word Bharat Mata has been expunged from the Parliament. The word itself cannot be spoken in the Parliament," Gandhi said at the press conference.
On Amit Shah and Sansad TV
In reply to a question on Home Minister Amit Shah ruling out the removal of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on the grounds that he would mediate talks between Meiteis and Kukis, Gandhi asserted that no dialogue was possible until the violence was curbed.
On Sansad TV channel not giving him enough screentime during his Wednesday's speech in the Lok Sabha, the senior Congress leader said that he had no problem if his face was not shown on the television. However, he quipped PM Modi may not want to see Gandhi on the the television and knew how to control the television coverage.
(With inputs from Jal Khambata, New Delhi)
