Rahul Gandhi seeks to speak in the Lok Sabha, BJP demands apology

The ongoing Budget session of Parliament, which is scheduled to end on April 6, could be heading for a major confrontation and bitter relations between the government and the Opposition.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday reiterated its demand that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi apologise to the House and the country for his remarks in England that democracy in India was in peril, while the main Opposition party flatly ruled this out. 

It was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which hinted at things to come. “The logjam in Parliament will continue. Demonstrations, rallies, protests, and public meetings will be organised across the country against you every day to tell people that you and Adani looted Bharat Mata’s assets,” AAP MP Sanjay Singh said, adding: “You will have to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)."

Gandhi held a press conference where he said he hoped he would be allowed to speak on Friday, but had low expectations that this would happen. He said he met Speaker Om Birla who heard him patiently but “was noncommittal”. “As an MP, I have been named by at least four ministers. I have the right to reply in Parliament. I hope I will be allowed to speak. If I am not, it merely exemplifies the fact that as an MP I am not being allowed to speak and democracy is indeed in danger,” he said.

Gandhi said the government is afraid of what he might say after his speech where he raised a number of issues, including asking the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reveal the relationship it had with the Adani group of companies. “The government should explain what happened exactly in the contracts the Adani group secured in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and in Australia where a loan to the group was approved by State Bank of India after a meeting at which the PM, the group head, and top officials of the SBI were present.”

BJP leaders, however, demanded that before anything else, Gandhi should apologise. Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi told reporters after another day of washout of parliamentary proceedings that not only MPs but the entire country was angry over his comments which insulted not just Parliament but the entire nation. Gandhi has to first demonstrate publicly that he is apologising for the mistake he has made, Goyal said, replying to a question about the Congress leader’s stand on the issue. He has levelled “absolutely baseless and false allegations without any iota of truth”, Goyal said.

The BJP has accused him of seeking intervention of foreign powers in India by portraying the state of democracy in the country in a poor light. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi said: “India’s prestige has not been attacked in such a manner before. Political differences may be there but there cannot be a graver crime than to seek interference from foreign powers. Anger prevails across the country for the grave insult Rahul Gandhi has inflicted upon what even the world acknowledges as the mother of democracy.”

Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned on Thursday exactly one minute after it convened at 11 am. The Lok Sabha was also adjourned. As Friday afternoons are devoted to Private Members Bills, the two Houses will only have the morning session to conduct some business. In the Upper House, even papers and reports could not be laid on the table as it did not function long enough.

The Congress and other Opposition parties are unlikely to back down from the demand for a JPC into the Adani affair and the Hindenburg Research report. The government sees no merit in setting up a JPC.