PM, Shah lead BJP fast over House washout
NEW DELHI:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah led their party’s day-long fast against the Congress for allegedly causing the disruptions that resulted in a washout of the Parliament’s recently concluded budget session.
“The Congress knew very well that it cannot debate in any of the House so they did not let the Parliament function. BJP was left with no choice but to go to the people as it is the biggest forum for us,” Shah said during a sit-in at Hubli in Karnataka, where he is campaigning ahead of the upcoming elections.
Modi, who had left for Tamil Nadu earlier in the day to inaugurate the Defence Expo before returning to Delhi, worked through the day while observing the fast, a BJP leader said.
Members of the Union council of ministers and senior BJP leaders also sat on a fast in different parts of the country. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad observed the fast in Patna while Railways minister Suresh Prabhu, environment minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, WCD minister Maneka Gandhi, minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti, rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party’s vice-president SS Ahluwalia fasted in Delhi.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das took part in the fast in their respective states.
CONG’S ATTACK
While the BJP organised the fast in a bid to corner the Congress, the main opposition party took on the PM for his “silence” over the Unnao rape case and said he was “not serious” about the crimes committed against women across the country.
Addressing a news conference, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal asked the Prime Minister to observe a fast over various rape incidents and register his protest against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath over the Unnao rape case. He also questioned why the accused BJP legislator in the case had not been arrested yet.
Referring to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report for 2016, Sibal said that the BJP-ruled states of Maharashtra, MP and UP had the highest crime rate against women.
“Even the no-confidence motion was not taken up for discussion. This has never happened in the past. Shouldn’t the PM have observed fast on that?” he said.
In Visakhapatnam, few CPI workers picked up an argument with the fasting BJP leaders. This led to a clash between the two sides, after which about 20 CPI workers were arrested, police said.