Rahul leads protest against note ban, says 'PM terrified, blocking my speech in Parliament'

Stepping up his attack on the Narendra Modi-led government over demonetisation, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed to be in possession of information on “the personal corruption of the Prime Minister’. He alleged the Prime Minister was not allowing him to speak about it in the Lok Sabha.  

“The Prime Minister is personally terrified of me being allowed to open my mouth inside the Lok Sabha because I have information about the Prime Minister that is going to explode his balloon. And, I am not being allowed to speak in the House,” said Gandhi. 

Gandhi, who according to sources is tipped to take over the reins of the party soon, has been leading the Opposition’s protest against demonetisation inside Parliament.

Reacting to this, Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar termed Gandhi’s allegation baseless. “If he had any information, he would have said it by now. He is saying this out of frustration. Today, they are saying they are not being allowed to speak. It is wrong because everyday, the Congress members are coming to the well of the House (to disrupt Parliament proceedings),” he said.

Information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu said Gandhi was raking up a non-issue. He asked why the Congress and Gandhi were not allowing Parliament to function.   Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Congress leader should divulge the information against Modi outside Parliament if he was not allowed speak in the House. 

Shortly after he targeted the PM, Gandhi addressed a protest by Congress leaders from Kerala at the Jantar Mantar demanding restoration of cooperative banking activities. 

Besides demonetisation, the Opposition also raised corruption charges against junior home minister Kiren Rijiju in the Upper House. 

Rijiju described Gandhi’s charge against the PM as “the biggest joke of the year”.

Later in the day, Rahul also received a delegation of party leaders from poll-bound Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.