Privilege motion against Piyush Goyal in Rajya Sabha for calling Opposition ‘traitors’

The leaders of the Opposition alliance INDIA submitted a privilege motion in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday against the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal for addressing the Opposition as all of them "traitors". In a tweet, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said that nothing less than an apology from him on the floor of the House will do.

"Today at 1300 hrs, the floor leaders of INDIA parties in the Rajya Sabha submitted a privilege motion against Leader of the House Piyush Goyal for addressing the Opposition as all of them "traitors". Nothing less than an apology from him on the floor of the House, when it is in order, will do," Jairam Ramesh said in a report.

In another tweet Jairam Ramesh explained why the INDIA parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. “The continued refusal of the Modi government to allow an immediate discussion on Manipur on the basis of a mutually negotiated Motion and the continued refusal of the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal to apologise for the highly objectionable and completely unacceptable remarks he made against leaders of the INDIA parties,” Jairam Ramesh said.

Piyush Goyal attacked the Opposition in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday over the New York Times report which revealed some alleged links between Newsclick and China. "Congress and its arrogant coalition parties are supporting Chinese media and hatching a conspiracy. This is a serious issue. This issue needs to be discussed in the House," Piyush Goyal said.

He added that “arrogant coalition parties are helping each other. They are funding the propaganda against the country. What relation Rahul Gandhi has with the Communist party and China? The country should know whether they are with India or China…”

Lok Sabha discusses no-confidence motion

The chaos in Rajya Sabha comes on the day Lok Sabha is discussing the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government. The leaders from Opposition benches attacked the Prime Minister for his silence on Manipur with Gaurav Gogoi summing up the motion with just three questions.

“The Prime Minister took a 'maun vrat' to not speak in Parliament. So, we had to bring the no-confidence motion to break his silence. We have three questions for him - 1) Why did he not visit Manipur to date? 2) Why did it take almost 80 days to finally speak on Manipur and when he did speak it was just for 30 seconds? 3) Why has the PM not sacked the Manipur CM so far?” Gaurav Gogoi asked.