The Congress on Thursday said that the Opposition managed to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the floor of the Lok Sabha but questions regarding justice for the people of Manipur remained unanswered as Mr. Modi is gripped by “Congress-phobia”.
Addressing reporters after walking out of the Lok Sabha after about 90 minutes into the Prime Minister’s speech, Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi — who had moved the no-trust motion — claimed that the Prime Minister kept speaking only about his party and the Opposition, rather than focusing on Manipur in his two-hour-long speech.
“... In these two hours, all he did was to twist the name of our country — India. There is a Congress-phobia inside that we can see because the Prime Minister spent most of his time blaming the Congress party,” Mr. Gogoi said. He accused the BJP of “fake nationalism” and being “unpatriotic”.
“Why hasn’t the Prime Minister made any plans to go to Manipur? Why hasn’t the Prime Minister made any concrete statement on Manipur? Why hasn’t he asked his Chief Minister to resign? It is only the arrogance which makes them blind to the pain of Manipur people, that Rahul Gandhi ji alluded to in his speech,” Mr. Gogoi said.
Earlier, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury formally complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for expunging some key words from Mr. Gandhi’s speech. Mr. Gandhi had said that the politics of the BJP in Manipur is akin to taking away the life of Bharat Mata. Though the exact words were removed, the Bharat Mata reference was retained.
“Apparently, Bharat Mata is an unparliamentary word in India nowadays,” Mr. Gandhi told reporters when asked about his comments being expunged from the records of Parliament.
