Street protests against decisions in House lead to anarchy: Modi

With the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act agitation having spread to the whole country, with Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh protests being the fulcrum of dissent against the law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose the floor of Parliament to pour scorn on the so called “tukde tukde gang” associated with the Opposition, whom he blamed for provoking the protests against a notified law.

In an almost 100-minute speech in Lok Sabha, Mr Modi repeatedly took digs and made cryptic comments against Rahul Gandhi and the Congress’ Lok Sabha leader Adhir

Ranjan Choudhury.

The comments, often sarcastic and tauntingly personal, left the treasury benches constantly in splits, as he compared Mr

Gandhi to a “tubelight”, saying it took the Congress leader around half-an-hour to react to his speech, when the former got up to question Mr Modi on unemployment.

Mr Modi warned that street protests and arson against the decisions taken in Parliament and state Assemblies and people’s refusal to accept laws will lead to anarchy, as he accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of inciting protests against the CAA and NPR.

Stoutly defending the CAA and updation of the National Population Register (NPR), Mr Modi told Parliament that there was an attempt to cover undemocratic activity under the garb of protests.

Mr Modi, replying to the motion of thanks on the President’s address, first in the Lok Sabha on Thursday afternoon and

■ Continued from Page 1 later in the Rajya Sabha in the evening, said for him every citizen was an Indian and not somebody belonging to a particular religion/community, adding that Muslims were being misled by those who “speak the language of Pakistan”. He chose to emphasise that the CAA was not against any minority community and no citizen would be endangered by the law.

He ridiculed the Congress and attacked it for imposing the Emergency, partitioning the country in 1947 and instigating the 1984 antiSikh riots, Mr Modi said it was due to these misdeeds of the Congress that the people had shown it the door and it has failed to perform its duty as a responsible Opposition.

Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Mr Modi in his reply referred to the Congress leader's comments he had reportedly made about “youth beating Modi with sticks over the lack of jobs”, and said he would increase the number of Surya Namaskars (a yoga exercise) so that his back can bear the sticks.

“In 70 years, no Congress leader has ever become self- sufficient. I heard one leader’s manifesto yesterday. He said “we will beat Modi with a stick in six months”. I can imagine that it is a difficult prospect, so it will take six months to prepare. In these six months, I will do more surya namaskar so that my back is ready for the beating ... I have been subjected to abuses in the past 20 years, I will make myself gaali-proof (abuse-proof) and danda-proof (stickproof),” Mr Modi said.

Mr Modi repeatedly took on Mr Choudhury, who was constantly interjecting his speech with protestations. The PM said the Congress leader was openly publicising the government’s "Fit India" campaign in Parliament.

Responding to Mr Chowdhury on unemployment, Mr Modi said he will resolve unemployment in the country but not his and of his party's. “Aapki berozgari nahin hatne denge,” he quipped.

When the Opposition sought to question him over the government's achievements in the agriculture sector, he said he had learnt from farmers. Farmers, he said, toil hard in the fields under scorching heat but sow the seeds when the time is right. Similarly, he added, I created the space in your (Opposition’s) minds and gradually I will start sowing the seeds in them.

Responding to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's attack on the government over its measures on Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Modi suggested Mr Tharoor should have some soft corner for Kashmir, after all he was the “sonin-law” of the region, referring to his late wife Sunanda Pushkar, who was a Kashmiri.

As soon as Mr Modi arrived in the Lok Sabha, Congress MPs countered the BJP legislators’ “Jai Shri Ram” chants with “Gandhiji Amar Rahe”, in an apparent reference to the controversial remarks made by BJP MP Ananthkumar Hegde against Mahatma Gandhi. He immediately quipped: “Gandhiji may be a trailer for you, but for us he is our life”.

In a combative, politically loaded speech in both Houses of Parliament (with the Delhi Assembly polls just two days away), Mr Modi said those rejected by the people in elections were fuelling protests against the CAA.