NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha‘s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused BJP of engineering scuffle in Parliament complex to divert attention and avoid discussion on the US indictment of billionaire Gautam Adani in an alleged bribery case.
Keeping a copy of the Constitution in front of him while addressing a press conference, Gandhi said, “They have started a new distraction. All MPs were going to the Parliament House peacefully. BJP MPs were standing in front of us on the stairs of the Parliament House… They blocked our way… This is a new way of creating a distraction. The main issue they are trying to hide is that there is a case against Narendra Modi’s friend Adani in the United States… He has been indicted there and Modi is selling India to Adani… This is the main issue and BJP doesn’t want a discussion on this.”
He said BJP has been trying to distract from the issues since the session began and Congress had always said that the ruling party’s thought process was “anti-constitutional and anti-Ambedkar” and that it wanted to erase Ambedkar’s memory and contribution. “We never intended to disturb the proceedings of both the Houses. We protested every day for 14 days and the main topic was the Adani issue. But during the debate on 75 years of adoption of the Constitution, Amit Shah out of nowhere insulted Dr BR Ambedkar. He said ‘if you (Opposition) had taken the name of God so many times instead of Ambedkar, you would have got heaven for seven lives’. If this is the mindset of a political party or a leader, then it is condemnable,” he said.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said: “He (Shah) refused to accept he had done anything wrong. We asked for his resignation and, failing that, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack him. We realised neither of these things was going to happen, so leaders of our party, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, protested. But BJP is trying to divert the issue.”
