BJP defends PM’S Manmohan comments

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Congress for obstructing proceedings in both Houses, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said the opposition party had no moral right to preach or give sermons to others and demanded that it apologise to Parliament and the Prime Minister for calling him names.

“Congress has no moral right to teach us or preach us or give sermons about parliamentary etiquette and standards.

“Congress needs to ponder about its conduct of creating disturbances when the PM is addressing the House. They should in fact apologise to the House for their conduct. They need to apologise to the people, Parliament and PM,” Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.

He said the opposition, particularly Congress, “should tender an apology for obstructing Parliament, the Prime Minister for not showing respect to the him, for making running commentary and also for creating disturbances, for making uncharitable remarks against the Prime Minister, not only now, but also earlier”. He said the Congress leaders call names to the Prime Minister umpteen number of times, using all “absurd and cheap words”.

“Let them not teach or preach ‘pravachan’ (sermons) to others,” he said. Replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha, Modi took a jibe at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying one should learn the art of “bathing with a raincoat on” from him as there was not a single taint on him despite so many scams taking place during his regime.

An enraged Congress had on Wednesday taken strong exception to the “raincoat” jibe and staged a walkout and demanded an apology from him. Congress also disrupted the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday and protested in the Lok Sabha.