New Delhi: While Congress MP Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on prime minister Narendra Modi after his return to parliament on August 9, it emerged later that parts of his speech were expunged from Lok Sabha records.
Union minister Smriti Irani, meanwhile, accused Gandhi of “misogyny” after he allegedly threw a “flying kiss” in her direction. Congress has disputed this. Opposition members have also accused Sansad TV of not showing Gandhi during his speech.
The debate on ethnic violence in Manipur on Wednesday veered towards the question of a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.
The second day of the no-confidence motion debate continued for over seven hours and saw enthusiastic speeches from Union ministers Amit Shah and Smriti Irani along with several members of the opposition INDIA alliance.
Parts of Rahul Gandhi’s speech expunged
Gandhi opened the debate on Wednesday with a scathing attack on Modi for his silence on the ongoing violence in Manipur and accused him of being “anti-national” and “murdering India in Manipur.”
But on Wednesday night, Lok Sabha records showed that parts of Gandhi’s speech had been expunged.
In total 24 words have been expunged from Gandhi’s speech.
This includes two implicit mentions of Speaker Om Prakash Birla, as Gandhi referred to billionaire businessman Gautam Adani.
“Because I focused on Adani, your senior leader must have felt anguished,” Gandhi said.
“His anguish must have had its effect on you as well,” he added.
Both these apparent references to Birla have been expunged.
In addition, the words “hatya” (murder), ‘katl‘ (murder), and ‘murder’ have also been expunged wherever Gandhi has referred to Modi “murdering” India in Manipur.
In his speech Gandhi had said: “You have murdered that voice. This means you have murdered Bharat Mata in Manipur. By killing the people of Manipur you have murdered India.
In addition, the words, ‘deshdrohi (traitor to one’s country)’, ‘hatyare (murderer)’, ‘mara (killed)’ have also been expunged.
“You are anti-national, you cannot be patriotic, you cannot be loving this country. You have murdered India,” he had said in Hindi.
Sansad TV Cameras
Opposition MPs have accused Sansad TV of not showing members of the INDIA alliance when they are speaking and only showing the Speaker’s chair at those times. The camera remains on BJP MPs and ministers when they speak, they have alleged.
Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh, for one, tweeted that Sansad TV had shown Gandhi for less than 40% of his speech.
In his first speech after coming back from the unjustified disqualification, @RahulGandhi spoke from 12:09pm to 12:46pm i.e. 37 minutes during the No-Confidence Motion.
Out of which the Sansad TV camera showed him for ONLY 14 mins 37 seconds. That’s less than 40% screen time!… pic.twitter.com/r8AHVHdNGv
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 9, 2023
When Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi was speaking opposition members protested and told the acting chairman of the House Kirit Prembhai Solanki that the camera is not showing her but the Speaker’s chair.
“When ministers speak you show them but when INDIA alliance speaks camera shows speaker’s chair,” opposition MPs could be heard saying to Solanki.
Solanki replied, “Nothing like that [is happening] and this will not go on record.”
During National Conference MP Farooq Abdullah’s speech, too, the cameras remained focused on Rama Devi who was on the Speaker’s chair.
Kept seeing the speaker's beatific face as Farooq Abdullah raged on pic.twitter.com/XOwCUjL1tQ
— Manisha Pande (@MnshaP) August 9, 2023
A day ago, on August 8, there was a row between the Opposition and Treasury Benches over ticker lines being run on Sansad TV that showed the government ministries’ achievements during the no-confidence motion debate. The lines were taken off after the matter was brought to the Speaker’s attention.
‘Flying kiss’ row
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani who spoke right after Gandhi opened the day’s debate said that the Congress MP had displayed misogyny towards women MPs while he was leaving the house.
“The one who was speaking before me, while leaving he made an indecent gesture,” she said referring to Gandhi.
“It is only a misogynistic man who can give a kiss to parliament with female members present. This behaviour has not been seen before in the house.”
Footage of the alleged incident on Sansad TV is not clear. A group of NDA MPs wrote to Speaker Birla on this.
This is the video of Rahul Gandhi just before @smritiirani spoke. Is there any other video of him allegedly blowing “Flying Kiss” to Smriti Irani as claimed by @ShobhaBJP?
Also in her, speech Smriti Irani said, Rahul Gandhi blew a ‘flying kiss’ to a Parliament which has female… pic.twitter.com/cZJl5X3QaQ— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 9, 2023
“This is the first time we have seen such behaviour from an MP in the House. He made a gesture of a flying kiss at women MPs in the House…It is unacceptable. We have complained to the Speaker to take action against him,” said Union minister Shobha Karandlaje outside parliament.
A copy of the letter has also been posted on X (formerly Twitter) by the news agency ANI. It includes signatures by several women MPs from the NDA.
However BJP MP Hema Malini, whose signature is on the copy of the letter, a screenshot of which was shared by ANI on X, said to India Today that she had not seen Gandhi doing anything corresponding to the claims in the letter.
“I did not see that,” she said.
Question over plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir
Also on Wednesday, the no-confidence motion debate saw a heated exchange between NC MP Farooq Abdullah and Union ministers of state Nityananda Rai and V.K. Singh over the question of a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Maharaja of Kashmir was not a fool, He wanted to remain independent. Between these two nations- Switzerland. But Pakistanis did not want that. They invaded and we had to come to India for help. The agreement that was signed-you only had defence, communication and foreign affairs. The final decision was to be taken by a plebiscite. This is history. And that (plebiscite) was never held,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the government’s claims on development in Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah said that it is love that is needed for the people of the region.
“Don’t hate us by telling us about tourism and development.It is not tourism and development but love that you have to give..”
“You had G20 meetings and you said to the whole world what a great tourism meeting you had but you could not take them to Gulmarg, Dachigam. Because you couldn’t say there is no terrorism there..Look at Rajouri, Kulgam..See how our neighbour is behaving.”
“I say to this government and to the people of india-remember what Vajpayee said, you can change friends but not neighbours.”
MoS home Nityananda Rai then rose from his seat and countered Abdullah.
“Today India is so strong no neighbour dares to fight. India is proud of its government and its PM.”
Later V.K. Singh also countered Abdullah about why the plebiscite was not held.
“The plebiscite did not happen because there was a condition that Pakistan would remove troops from POK. Let us not talk about plebiscites not being held. The condition wasn’t fulfilled, the plebiscite couldn’t be held,” he said.