Manmohan remark: FM douses fire
The parliamentary impasse over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments about former prime minister Manmohan Singh during an election rally in Gujarat ended on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated in the Rajya Sabha the PM did not question his predecessor’s commitment to India. The Congress accepted the “clarification” and stopped its disruption of the proceedings.
Proceedings of both the Houses had been adjourned repeatedly since the first day of the winter session on December 15 with the Congress demanding the PM’s apology for alleging that Singh, former vice-president M Hamid Ansari and others had met at a dinner to conspire at the behest of Pakistan to influence the Gujarat polls.
At 2pm on Wednesday, Jaitley, also the Leader of the House, said the PM in his speeches “did not question the commitment to this nation either by Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister, or Hamid Ansari, the former vicepresident”. “Any such perception is completely erroneous. We hold these leaders in high esteem, as also their commitmentto this nation,” Jaitley said.
He said many statements had been made on all sides during the elections, and added the government “does not want the stalemate as a result of this to continue”.
After Jaitley’s statement in the Rajya Sabha and in a reference to suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks on the PM, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Congress dissociated itself from any statement that any of its members had made
“The PM in his speeches ‘did not question the commitment to this nation by Manmohan Singh’” ARUN JAITLEY Finance minister
against the stature of the PM during the recently concluded Assembly polls to Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
After Jaitley and then Azad’s statements, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu thanked all members of the House for their cooperation in resolving the stalemate.
According to sources within the Congress, the party’s feedback was the public perception on the issue was that the party was prolonging the stalling of Parliament and not discussing other issues of import. Azad said the Congress felt it was letting the government escape accountability on several other issues, where it should ideally pin it down.
The party had been wanting an honourable exit to bring the issue to a closure, which was provided by the developments related to Kulbhushan Jadhav. Azad also said the Congress believed it should voice the anger among common people over the “inhuman” treatment meted out by Pakistan to Jadhav’s mother and wife. “Pakistan has insulted not just Jadhav’s mother and wife, but 1.3 billion people. We are a political party but first we are Indians,” Azad said. He has moved a notice that the Rajya Sabha suspend its Question Hour on Thursday to take up a discussion on the issue.
The Congress and the BJP reached a deal on the issue in the morning after Rajya Sabha Chairman Naidu intervened, but the rest of the Opposition parties disrupted the Rajya Sabha proceedings before lunch to protest the comments by Union minister Anantkumar Hegde. The Lok Sabha was also disrupted on the issue.
Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party members trooped into the well of the Rajya Sabha to demand that Hegde either apologise for his comments questioning the Constitution or be sacked as a minister and an MP of the Lok Sabha. The government has sought a day’s time. The Opposition, including the Congress, will protest on the issue on Thursday morning.