Minister sorry for remarks on Nehru trust
Union Minister of State Anurag Thakur expressed regrets in the House after the Lok Sabha witnessed four adjournments yesterday due to a ruckus over his remarks pertaining to the PM National Relief Fund set up by independent India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The minister of state for finance and corporate affairs apologised for his statement during the introduction of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020.
The House saw four back-toback adjournments as opposition members led by the Congress objected to his remarks against Nehru and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“During the introduction of taxation and other laws, it was not my aim to hurt anyone while putting information (before the House). If anyone got hurt, I also feel the pain of that statement,” Thakur said when the House reassembled at 6pm following the four adjournments.
Thakur’s statement came after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla discussed the issue with the treasury benches and opposition leaders in his chamber in the wake of protests by opposition members.
Birla later asked the minister in the House to speak on his remarks so that the proceedings of the session could be regularised.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party was hurt by Thakur’s statement against his party leaders and said his MPs will be happy if the treasury benches did not repeat such things in future.
“You made us feel very hurt. The government’s duty is to do work for the welfare of the country while the opposition’s duty is to help the government. The parliament is for both. We will all run this session together. It is the responsibility of both the treasury and opposition benches,” Chowdhury said.
Speaking on the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020, Thakur raised questions on Nehru’s trust which he claimed is not yet registered even though it was set up in 1948 on the then PM’s orders.
“In 1948, then prime minister Nehru ordered the PM National Relief Fund. Since then, there has been no registration of that fund. How did that fund get the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act nod is not known? The trust is not registered. How did you (Congress) give that trust FCRA clearance?” Thakur earlier asked.
His remarks came as the Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has provisions on the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) fund. The opposition has raised question on several occasions after the fund was set up to undertake and support relief and assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thakur said the PM-CARES fund is a constitutionally authorised trust and was set up for the welfare of the 1.3bn people of the county.
The prime minister is the exofficio chairman of PM-CARES while the ministers of defence, home affairs, and finance are exofficio trustees.
“You (Congress) made the PM National Relief Fund Trust only for the welfare of the Gandhi family,” Thakur had alleged.
Nehru and interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi have been members of the Prime Minister National Relief Fund, continued the minister, an MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.
He sought a detailed discussion to clear things about the fund.