Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not come to the Lok Sabha to reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address because he was “scared” of issues raised by the opposition, particularly references to former Army chief M.M. Naravane’s book.
Rejecting claims that there was a security threat to the Prime Minister from MPs, Gandhi challenged those making the allegation to act. “If somebody has said that he is going to attack the PM. Please do an FIR, arrest that person. Why you are not doing that!” he said.
“There is no question of that. The fact is very clear the prime minister was scared to come to the House not because of the members but because of what I was saying and he is still scared because he cannot face the truth,” Gandhi told reporters.
He insisted that there was “no question of the Congress members attacking the prime minister” and said Modi should have had the courage to face the House.
“He was scared of what we say, he was scared of being handed Naravane’s book as a first step,” Gandhi said.
The Congress leader also claimed the government was avoiding a wider debate on the Budget. “My guess is government is worried about having a debate on the Budget because the issue of the US deal, the way it was done, its impact on our farmers, is going to be discussed and the government does not want to do that,” he said.
Gandhi said the controversy began when the Naravane book issue surfaced and alleged repeated attempts to prevent him from raising it in the House.
"The government did not want me to talk about it so they stalled the House. They did not let me speak. That happened 3-4 times. First, they said I cannot quote a book, then I said I am not quoting a book, I am quoting a magazine. Then they said you cannot quote a magazine. Then I said I will speak about it. They did not want me to speak about it," he said.
He accused Defence Minister Rajnath Singh of making a false claim that the book was unpublished. “The book has been published and we have got a copy of it,” Gandhi said.
"So, that is one big issue of not allowing the LoP and entire opposition in the President's address.
One of their members quoted books and spoke vile stuff and nothing was said.
We don't like the fact that they can say whatever they want whenever they want and the opposition cannot," he said.
Gandhi listed the suspension of the Congress members and allegations against them of wanting to attack the prime minister as issues to be discussed.
