Congress Gets Active In The Lower House After PM Supports Anurag Thakur’s Remarks In Caste Dispute
- Posted on July 31, 2024
- News
- By Arijit Dutta
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The Congress filed a privilege complaint against PM Modi for endorsing expunged remarks by Anurag Thakur, who made caste-based comments against Rahul Gandhi during the Budget 2024 debate, escalating political tensions in Parliament.
The Congress has registered a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he supported the speech of BJP leader Anurag Thakur which had caste remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The complaint was presented by Jalandhar MP and the former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who accused the Prime Minister of supporting the banned statements from the proceedings of the Indian Parliament.
In his said letter, the Hon’ble Speaker has mentioned that some objectionable remarks given by the Mr. Thakur were deleted from the House. However, at the same time, Prime Minister Modi also tweeted these words along with sharing the complete video of the speech. This is rather surprising as these excluded parts were twitted by the PM on X, along with the entire speech video, pointed out Mr. Channi. He claimed that such actions are unparliamentary and that releasing expunged comments amounts to subverting the rules of procedure.
During the press conference while interacting with NDTV, Mr. Channi said that he cannot repeat what has been expunged. “But the Prime Minister duly aired them by tweeting,” he said. When the BJP argued that the remarks had not been expunged when the Prime Minister tweeted, Mr. Channi said that the house ordered removal during the House session was done instantaneously.
The furore occurred when Mr. Thakur, a five-time MP from Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, used unparliamentary language to refer to Mr. Gandhi in the course of debating the Budget 2024. Prime Minister Modi posted on X a 15-minute video of the speech and described it as ‘a speech you must hear,’ in which he attacked INDI Alliance for dirty politics. This was rather followed by criticism and condemnation from the Congress when the Prime Minister endorsed the speech by saying: “This is a serious breach of parliamentary privilege. ” The Congress was quick to call the speech highly abusive and unconstitutional.
Chairman of the occasion, senior Congress MP Jagdambika Pal, assured that Mr. Thakur’s comments will be deleted from the official records. But Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed out that Sansad TV uploaded the entire unedited speech, which he labelled as a ‘new and shameful low in the Indian parliamentary history’ of BJP-RSS and Mr. Modi’s casteism.
Mr. Gandhi, in response to Mr. Thakur's attack, asserted the Opposition's commitment to passing the Bill on Caste Census, despite personal insults.
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The incident underscores the deepening political divide and the contentious atmosphere in the Indian Parliament as the nation approaches the next general elections.