PM says Cong ‘divided, confused’ in Parliament

NEW DELHI: Reaping the political benefit of the Congress’s differing approaches in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on discussions over the President’s speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a sharp attack on the Opposition party on Wednesday and said such a “divided and confused” party could neither do any good for itself nor think of any solutions for the country’s problems.

Modi’s remarks came when Congress MPS, including former party chief Rahul Gandhi, were walking out of the House in protest against the government’s stand on the farm laws.

“Nothing can be more unfortunate than this. The Congress is there in Rajya Sabha, their senior leaders are there, they debate with a lot of enthusiasm and express their views. On the other hand, there is the other section of the Congress (in Lok Sabha) .... Time will tell,” the PM said.

Last week, the Rajya Sabha leadership of the Congress, along with other Opposition parties, participated in the debate on the President’s speech after the government’s floor managers agreed with the Opposition to extend the time for debate by five hours and suspend Question Hour and Zero Hour for a smooth debate.

In stark contrast, the Congress leaders in Lok Sabha continued to disrupt the proceedings for four days before agreeing to participate. According to party insiders, Gandhi made his displeasure known to the Rajya Sabha leaders.

“The condition of the Congress party, a very old party which ruled the country for about six decades, has now become such that its Rajya Sabha unit moves in one direction while the Lok Sabha unit moves in another direction,” Modi said on Wednesday.

During Modi’s reply too, he was interrupted by Congress floor leader Adhir Chowdhury and an irked Modi was heard saying, “How can the debate run like this?” He also took digs at Chowdhury and said, “Your message has been registered”, indicating that Gandhi, sitting behind Chowdhury, has seen the protests by his colleague.