Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on the UPA government abroad rocked Rajya Sabha today with Opposition forcing repeated adjournments but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley put up a strong defence saying "there is no gag order" on the PM on foreign soil.
Members from Opposition and treasury benches had heated exchange of words on Modi's remarks during his recent visit to Canada that he wanted to "clean the dirt" of 60 years.
Raking up the issue, Congress Deputy Leader Anand Sharma said,"the Prime Minister has no dignity for the country. He is not speaking like the Prime Minister. He is speaking like a leader of the BJP and a Pracharak."
Referring to Modi's statement in Toronto that "earlier it was 'scam India' and now it is 'skill India', he said,"India cannot be a scam. Country cannot be a scam. There can be mistakes made but the country cannot be termed scam,".
He was also critical of Modi's statement that he wants to clean the "gandagi" (dirt) of 60 years.
Rejecting the Opposition charge that Modi was "lowering the dignity" of the country by making such remarks abroad, Jaitley, who is also Leader of the House, said the Prime Minister was "perfectly entitled" to say that his government will break away from what happened in last 60 years and give a clean government.
"The discussion he (Sharma) wants is don't discuss what happened in the last sixty years, but only the right to discuss is under question.
"There is no gag order and the Prime Minister is perfectly entitled to say that what happened in the last sixty years, we will break away from that and present an honest government to the people of India," Jaitley said.
He also took potshots at both Janata Dal (United) and CPI(M) wondering whether they thought that India is not defamed by "acts of corruption" but by referring to them.
