The politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have resulted in the death of ‘Bharat Mata’ (‘Mother India’) in Manipur, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a blistering the no-confidence debatethe no-confidence debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The exact words used by Mr. Gandhi were removed from the official records by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, according to a bulletin issued late on Wednesday evening. Until the filing of this report, the Lok Sabha Secretariat, however, had not issued any bulletin regarding the expunction of the same words that were used by Union Minister Smriti Irani as a retort to Mr. Gandhi’s speech.
In a high-voltage speech, his first after being reinstated as a Member of Parliament, Mr. Gandhi referred to BJP leaders as those who are not patriots; accused the ruling party of “sprinkling kerosene everywhere and putting the country on fire”; and cited the recent communal flare up in Haryana.
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Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting Manipur, Mr. Gandhi claimed that Mr. Modi did not consider the strife-torn State to be a part of India, a comment that evoked strong protest from the Treasury Benches.
“I went to Manipur a few days ago but our Prime Minister has still not gone there. He does not consider Manipur a part of India. I used the word Manipur, but the reality is that there is no Manipur left...,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Mr. Modi was not present in the House when the Congress leader delivered his speech.
From the Ramayana to the 13th century Persian poet Rumi, to vignettes from his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Mr. Gandhi’s focused on shedding one’s arrogance to hear the voices of the people, their pain and struggle, a manifestation of the country.
He then narrated his experience of visiting two different relief camps in Manipur. In the first instance, a mother spoke of clinging to the body of her only son, who had been shot dead; and in the other, a woman fainted while recalling her ordeal.
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“As I had said, India is a voice of the people. You finished that voice in Manipur. This means that you finished Bharat Mata in Manipur,” Mr. Gandhi asserted, amid the thumping of desks by Opposition leaders.
The proceedings saw some tense moments as Opposition members rushed to the Well of the House after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju stood up in an attempt to counter Mr. Gandhi’s comment in the middle of his speech.
While on the one hand, Opposition members tried to shout down Mr. Rijiju, Treasury Bench MPs raised slogans to object to the Congress leader’s use of language on the other.
While Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was seen persuading the members of his party to return to their seats, the Speaker then warned of action against those who trooped into the Well of the House.
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Mr. Birla also urged Mr. Gandhi to exercise restraint, asserting, “Bharat Mata is our mother.”
“One mother is sitting her,” Mr. Gandhi said in response to Mr. Birla, pointing to his mother and former Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who was seated in the first row. He added the other one, Manipur, had been “finished” by the BJP.
In his more than 30-minute-long speech, Mr. Gandhi claimed that the Indian Army could bring peace to Manipur in one day but the government was not deploying it. “Till you do not stop violence in Manipur, you are murdering my mother,” he said.
The Congress leader, who started his speech by thanking Mr. Birla for restoring his membership, said that just like Ravan used to listen only to Meghnad and Kumbhakaran, Mr. Modi listened to only two people, Amit Shah and Gautam Adani.
“Hanuman had not burnt down Lanka, Ravan’s arrogance did it. Ravan was not killed by Ram but by his arrogance,” Mr. Gandhi said, referring to the Ramayana.
