Parliament Monsoon Session: Congress questions PM Modi's silence on Manipur, BJP's nationalism

The BJD on Tuesday opposed the no-confidence motion against the government on the Manipur violence, saying what happened in the state is due to "legacy issues" running back several decades.

Participating in the debate in Lok Sabha, Biju Janata Dal MP Pinaki Misra said it is out of the question for the BJD to support any motion brought by the Congress.

"They are very adept at cutting their nose to spite their face," he said targeting the Congress. It defies logic and political sense to bring a no-confidence motion that is bound to fail, Misra said and added that every time the prime minister gets up on the floor of the House, "he pushes the Congress party through the shredder".

"So let me make it clear we oppose this motion because of the fact that it has been brought by the Congress party. But there are many other compelling reasons," he said.

Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde tore into the Uddhav Thackeray faction for "abandoning" Hindutva and Bal Thackeray's ideology and even recited the Hanuman Chalisa in Lok Sabha as his party opposed the no-confidence motion against the Modi government.

The Lok Sabha MP from Kalyan, who is the son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, launched a scathing attack at the opposition parties, saying they renamed their alliance INDIA as 'UPA' had become synonymous with corruption.

"It is not just NDA vs INDIA, but scheme vs scam," he said.

Several leaders of the opposition alliance INDIA have given a privilege notice against leader of the house in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal over his certain remarks against some opposition leaders.

Among the parties whose leaders gave the notice are the Congress, TMC, AAP, RJD, DMK, RJD, JDU, NCP and the Left parties.

Sources said leaders of INDIA parties gave the notice to the Rajya Sabha chairman complaining against Goyal's certain remarks made while he was speaking on the issue of media portal 'NewsClick' receiving funding from China-linked firms allegedly to spread Chinese propaganda.

Goyal questioned the relationship between the opposition parties and the news portal 'NewsClick', now accused by the New York Times of receiving funding from China-linked firms.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey raises the issue of the Supreme Court staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the ‘Modi’ surname remark case following which his membership was restored. He says, "The Supreme Court has not given a judgement. It has given a stay order...He is saying that he will not apologise...Secondly, he says "I am not Savarkar" - You can never be Savakar..."

Gogoi says: "When you speak about Indian Mujahideen, People’s Front of India (PFI), we speak about ISRO, IIT, Indian Institute of Science and Indian Air Force. When you try to discredit ‘India’ – reference to the INDIA alliance -- we see tiranga.

Today for you, hatred is becoming a weapon to wins polls, be it in Haryana or Madhya Pradesh. In your ‘bazaar of nafarat’ , we will open mohabat ki dukan’, he says, adding that "farmers have committed suicide, tomatoes are selling at 250 a kg, and your economic model is helping only one company."

"Bharat jitega, don’t be so arrogant," he added.

Gogoi mentions the Assam accord and the Mizo accord singed by former PM Rajiv Gandhi.  Why is Modi not doing it for Manipur.

He says, “When in 2012 Kokrajhar faced violence, Manmohan Singh went to Assam and spoke about maintaining peace. Vajpayee went on to cite the 2022 Gujarat riots and visited the relief camps.

Gogoi repeats: “Come to house, go to Manipur, carry an all-party delegation and call all organisations of Manipur.”

Gaurav Gogoi says, “SS Haokip has given an affidavit that BJP, for electoral gains, used a secessionist to win. Is this your nationalism?”

“Where is the Naga peace framework?”, he asks mentioning that Naga peace accord was announced eight years ago. Why does the Home Minister not call all the units together and resolve it.

Why are you meeting them separately. This is not the first time that PM is silent. He had kept mum  when the women wrestler were protesting, the farmers were protesting. He was silent when he was questioned on Adani. PM Modi was also silent when asked about Chinese intrusions.

Gogoi says: “The former Governor of J&K, Satya Pal Malik, has raised some questions, he too was asked to remain quiet.”

Gogoi says, "We are compelled to bring the No Confidence Motion. This was never about numbers but about justice for Manipur. I move the Motion that this House expresses No Confidence in the Government. I.N.D.I.A. has brought this Motion for Manipur. Manipur wants justice."

Gaurav Gogoi says, "PM took a 'maun vrat' to not speak in the Parliament. So, we had to bring the No Confidence Motion to break his silence. We have three questions for him - 1)

Why did he not visit Manipur to date? 2) Why did it take almost 80 days to finally speak on Manipur and when he did speak it was just for 30 seconds? 3) Why has the PM not sacked the Manipur CM so far?"

Gaurav Gogoi says, "PM will have to accept that his double-engine govt, his govt in Manipur has failed. That is why, 150 people died in Manipur around 5000 houses were torched, around 60,000 people are in relief camps and around 6,500 FIRs have been registered. The CM of the state, who should have created an atmosphere of talks, of peace and harmony, has taken instigating steps in the past 2-3 days that have created tension in society."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the no-confidence motion brought by the opposition is a reflection of mutual distrust among INDIA bloc parties as they want to test who is with their proposal and who is not, sources said. In his address to party MPs at the BJP parliamentary meeting, he described the opposition alliance as 'ghamandia' (marked by arrogance) and congratulated the party's Rajya Sabha members for the "semi-final" win in voting on the Delhi services bill.

TMC MP Derek O'Brien on Tuesday claimed that it has taken the rules of a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition to "drag" Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Lok Sabha.

In a tweet, the TMC's Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha also urged the prime minister to come to the Upper House.

"It's taken the rules of a no-confidence motion to finally drag the PM to the Lok Sabha," he tweeted.

"And in the Rajya Sabha, what's stopping this heartless government from starting the discussion on Manipur today, August 8, at 11 am. Let's begin," he added in the tweet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to reply to the debate on Thursday.