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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Monsoon session disrupted third day in a row
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Monsoon session disrupted third day in a row

Rahul Gandhi accused Sushma Swaraj for committing a 'criminal act' by 'helping' former IPL chief Lalit Modi

“Sushmaji has done a criminal act. She is a minister of the government and the whole country knows she has done a criminal act,” Rahul Gandhi told the media. Photo: PTI Premium
“Sushmaji has done a criminal act. She is a minister of the government and the whole country knows she has done a criminal act,” Rahul Gandhi told the media. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Both the government and the opposition upped the ante on Thursday, ensuring that the monsoon session of Parliament was disrupted for the third day in a row with reports suggesting that a counter-attacking BJP matched a belligerent Congress in the Lok Sabha, placard for placard.

While Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj for committing a “criminal act" by “helping" former IPL chief Lalit Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went on to file a notice for a privilege motion against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra for a Facebook post. “Sushmaji has done a criminal act. She is a minister of the government and the whole country knows she has done a criminal act," Gandhi told the media. “If you do a criminal act, you go to jail."

BJP MP Prahlad Joshi brought up Vadra’s post and said it had “demeaned" parliamentarians and demanded that the issue be referred to the privileges committee. His comments were backed by his party colleagues and appeared to irk Sonia Gandhi who rose to protest strongly and led her party members to intensify slogan shouting against the government.

Vadra, in the Facebook post, had taken a dig at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government without naming it before the monsoon session began on 21 July. “Parliament begins and so do their petty diversionary political tactics… People of India are not fooled. Regret to see India led by such so-called leaders !!," Vadra had said in his post.

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan referred the breach of privilege motion against Vadra to Privileges Committee of Parliament. Read more

The Indian Express reported that a rattled Congress Lok Sabha leadership scampered to formulate a response to the BJP’s move. Leader of the Congress in the House Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia and party whips K.C. Venugopal and Deepender Hooda got into a huddle after which they marched to Mahajan’s office with the rulebook.

Thursday also saw the Congress boycott an all-party meeting called by Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, while Rahul Gandhi kept up his attack on the government and specifically Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “silence" on the row and said “people of India are losing their faith in him". HuffPost India reports that Gandhi referred to the Prime Minister’s promise of zero corruption and said, Modi “talks in the air" and his promises are like “gas coming out of a balloon".

The Hindu reports that earlier in the day, Modi went across the political divide to greet Opposition leaders, but soon after courtesies were exchanged it was back to square one with both sides sparring over the two scams. “You can discuss, but no resignations," minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi could be heard saying over the din during Zero Hour.

The government instead of giving in to the demands fired yet another salvo at the Congress, accusing Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh of receiving bribe in the garb of an unsecured loan. Read more

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Published: 24 Jul 2015, 11:40 AM IST
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