New Delhi: The debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address on July in the Lok Sabha was noteworthy for many reasons.
It saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervene during leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s address. While Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has been accused of favouring the Treasury Benches in the 17th Lok Sabha, in the first debate of the 18th Lok Sabha, Union home minister Amit Shah alleged that the Chair was favouring the opposition.
First-time Manipur MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam from the Congress who was given time close to midnight to deliver his maiden speech accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government and Modi of ignoring the civil strife-torn northeastern state.
The Wire brings you a breakdown of five of the most important moments from a fiery day one.
Modi’s intervention
In a rare sight in parliament, the beginning of the 18th Lok Sabha saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself intervening during LoP Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address. In the 17th Lok Sabha, other ministers of the Modi government and BJP MPs had often stood up and hollered in Modi’s defence.
On Monday, Modi rose twice during Gandhi’s speech.
“Those who call themselves Hindu 24×7 spread hatred, violence, and untruths. You are not Hindus. Hindu dharma clearly states that you must stand with the truth and not be scared of the truth. Nonviolence is our symbol. Abhaymudra,” said Gandhi.
These words have now been expunged from the records.
Modi then stood up and said “…[A] very serious subject. Labelling all of Hindu society as violent is an extremely serious matter.”
Towards the end of his speech Gandhi alleged that whenever he meets Modi, he smiles and bows in namaskar to him but the prime minister only looks at him, without even a smile.
He said senior Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari greet him frequently but their attitude towards him changes the moment when the prime minister is around them. “Even BJP ministers are scared,” Gandhi said.
Modi immediately got up and said: “Speaker sir, our democracy and constitution have taught me that I should treat the LoP with utmost seriousness.”
Five Cabinet ministers interrupt Gandhi’s speech
In what hearkens back to vibrant parliament practices, Gandhi’s speech also saw five cabinet ministers rise to defend the government.
Union minister for environment, forest and climate change cited Rules 349 (12) and objected to Gandhi showing his back to the Speaker while speaking.
During his speech, Gandhi referred to issues like the paper leaks in competitive exams like NEET, the rollout of the Agniveer scheme, hate against Muslims and other minorities, and farmers’ demands for a legal guarantee for MSP. Gandhi also said that the Modi government has overseen “systematic attack on the constitution, on the idea of India, and anybody who opposed” BJP’s patronisation of “hate, untruth and violence”.
His remarks against the BJP for spreading hate riled up the Treasury Benches.
Yadav cited Rule 352 and said that Gandhi made personal references and allegations against the Hindu community and should apologise.
Union home minister Amit Shah also rose up then and demanded his apology.
“I want to repeat his sentence – ‘Those who call themselves Hindus, they talk of violence and are violent’. In this country – probably he doesn’t know – crores of people identify themselves as Hindus with pride. Do they all talk of violence? He should apologise for linking a particular religion to violence,” said Shah.
During his speech, when Gandhi said that Agniveers are not being provided compensation under the centre’s Agnipath scheme, Union minister for defence Rajnath Singh stood up and said that the government is providing Rs 1 crore as compensation.
“He should put forward the facts and if these are not facts, he should apologise to Agniveers and the entire nation,” said Singh.
Gandhi then responded and said that it does not matter what the defence minister says or what he himself says, the Agniveers already know the truth.
Union minister for parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju then rose up to intervene.
“How can he say so lightly that it doesn’t matter what the defence minister says. He should authenticate his statements. We will also provide factual basis for what we are saying,” he said.
In another instance Union minister for agriculture Shivraj Singh Chauhan objected to Gandhi’s remarks on the Union government is not providing MSP on all crops as demanded by farmers.
“Rahul Gandhi is trying to mislead the parliament on MSP and he is presenting the wrong facts. The Modi government is already giving MSP to farmers,” said Chouhan.
Gandhi then responded and said he is referring to “legal guarantee for MSP” that is being demanded by the farmers.
Amit Shah accuses speaker of favouring opposition
While the opposition had accused Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla of favouring the Treasury Benches throughout the proceedings of the 17th Lok Sabha, including when an unprecedented 146 MPs were suspended from both houses of parliament, in a turn of events, Amit Shah accused Birla of favouring the opposition.
During Gandhi’s speech, Shah rose several times to make interventions.
In one instance, he said to Birla, “How can this continue in this House. You are going against rules and only giving them relief. You should protect us. It does not work like this.”
First-time MPs from Manipur, Meghalaya shine but close to midnight
As the debate in the Lok Sabha continued a little after midnight, the late hour was given to first-time MPs from the North East including from violence-torn Manipur, and Meghalaya.
Congress MP from Manipur Angomcha Bimol Akoijam tore into the ruling BJP and Modi for ignoring the “hurt, anger and sufferings” of 60,000 people displaced in the state due to the ongoing violence which has forced them to take shelter in relief camps under wretched conditions.
He began by underlining the fact that while Manipur was absent from the President’s speech, he, as a representative of the people from that state, was getting a chance to speak only close to midnight.
“I can see the priority to the state and its people,” he said.
Calling it an irony that while he got his chance to speak for the first time close to midnight, Manipur is but “two hours” ahead of Delhi, Akoijam said that the “arms of the clock have continued to tick in the state and the Northeast as per the sun rising in the rest of India.”
Reminding the House about an enduring struggle by people from the region to have its own time zone “so that people can live with dignity”, he said, but Northeast “has been dancing to the tune of Delhi”.
The midnight hour at the Lok Sabha also saw the maiden speech of the first time MP from Meghalaya, Ricky A.J. Syngkon. He belongs to Voice of People’s Party (VPP), a new regional entity hinged on raising the voice of the state’s Khasi tribe.
Another Manipur MP tears into Modi
Both MPs from Manipur highlighted the Union government’s neglect for the violence-torn state. Congress MP from the Outer Manipur seat, Alfred Kan-Ngam Arthur, just after taking his oath as a member of the Lower House in English, spoke a line in Hindi.
“Manipur mein nyay dilaiye, desh bachaiye, [render justice to Manipur and save the country],” he said to the applause of the Opposition members.
Reminding the House more than once about the plight of 60,000 displaced people in his state, Akoijam said the absence of Manipur in the President’s speech was “a reminder of a rashtra chetana (sense of nationality) that excludes people.”
“Indian state is a mute spectator” to the violence and “civil war like situation” in Manipur, he said.
“And yet our Prime Minister is mute, not even a word. The presidential address doesn’t even mention it. I say that the silence is not normal.” He equated the silence of the Modi government to the colonial era, and asked the House, “does it mean that people of the Northeast and Manipur in particular don’t matter?”
While Akoijam named a set of well known Manipuris for bringing fame to the country through sports and arts, and by paying with their lives to defend the border, a member from the Treasury Bench rose to shout that it was his party that made boxer Mary Kom a Rajya Sabha member.
What he failed to mention, though, was that even her house in Imphal was under the threat of an attack by a mob, leading her to plead with the prime minister and home minister Amit Shah to save Manipur.