Modi survives no-trust vote, Rahul’s hug-wink theatrics
new delhi — Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi accused the government of failing to live up to its promises as the Indian Parliament on Friday debated and defeated a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The motion was defeated by 325-126 votes by the lawmakers.
Gandhi, the scion of the NehruGandhi political dynasty, accused the government of creating only 400,000 new jobs against the 20 million promised in a year. He accused Modi of favouring big business houses in defence and business deals at the expense of poor people.
That angered lawmakers in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, leading the speaker to briefly adjourn the house proceedings to cool tempers. Gandhi later resumed his speech and at the end of it unexpectedly walked to where Modi was sitting and shook hands and hugged him. Gandhi followed it with a wink at his fellow Congress MPs.
Modi in his speech later had a dig at Gandhi’s gesture, accusing him of trying to unseat him as the prime minister.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was apparently “not pleased” with Gandhi’s theatrics. She urged the lawmakers to maintain the decorum and sanctity of the House.
Modi said the opposition knew that it didn’t have enough support to defeat his government. “It misused the provision to destabilise his government,” he said. —