Marathon 12-hour debate ends on high for BJP

New Delhi: Though the outcome of the no-confidence motion went on expected lines with the government winning hands down, the highlight of the day was Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s unscripted hug-n-wink and the Opposition heckling Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time as he rose to reply to the marathon debate.

With Mr Gandhi levelling allegations of corruption against the NDA government, and claiming that it favoured a “small group of industrialists”, the BJP said that it will move a privilege motion against him for spreading falsehood and misleading the Parliament.

The government crushed the no-confidence motion brought by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Lok Sabha by a whopping margin as 325 MPs voted against it while a mere 126 members supported it.

Only 451 MPs were present in the House as members of the Shiv Sena, the BJD and TRS were absent when the voting took place. Several AIADMK members opposed the motion, which boosted the NDA’s tally.

Uproar by the Opposition — mainly the TDP — continued during Mr Modi’s speech. The Prime Minister, who was listing his government’s achievements, refused to yield. He raised his voice over the din and continued his speech for nearly one-and-a-half hours.

High drama continued even after the Prime Minister’s speech when TDP was given time to respond to his reply. The party’s MP from Vijaywada Kesineni Srinivas, who had moved the motion against the government, took jibes at the Prime Minister by comparing his speech with watching a “blockbuster movie”.

Even as the Treasury benches were up on their feet after Mr Srinivas’ comments, the TDP MP continued in the same vein. Repeating Mr Modi’s comments that he considered Telugu as his mother, Mr Srinivas said that the Prime Minister was a “great drama artist, a great actor”.

He did not spare home minister Rajnath Singh either. Referring to his speech earlier in the day during the debate on the no-confidence motion, the TDP lawmaker said that the minister spoke at length about “Cholas, Chalukyas and the entire history of India”, but there was nothing concrete about issues pertaining to Andhra Pradesh.

In his speech, Prime Minister Modi dubbed the no-trust vote against his government a result of the Opposition’s “arrogance”, and urged all parties to dismiss the move. He accused the Congress of indulging in “negative politics” by working solely with the mindset of “Modi hatao”.

He also took a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for asking him to stand up for a hug after walking across to his chair in the Lok Sabha, saying the Congress president appeared to be in a hurry to occupy his seat.

Only the electorate of the country can decide his fate and make him sit in this chair, Mr Modi said, asking rather dramatically, “What is the hurry?”

Mr Rahul Gandhi, who was present in the House, looked bemused.  

Mr Narendra Modi said the floor test was not to measure the strength of his government, but a “force test” for the Congress and other Opposition parties.

Earlier, Mr Gandhi had launched a frontal attack on the National Democratic Alliance government in Lok Sabha over unfulfilled promises and questioned the Rafale deal demanding answers from Mr Modi on why he had allegedly favoured a particular businessman in the contract.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi also accused defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman of speaking “untruth” about the deal.

He said the TDP, like many other parties, was “a victim of BJP’s political weapon called ‘jumla (gimmick) strike’”.

“You are a victim of the 21st century political weapon — that political weapon is the Jumla Strike. There are many, many more victims like you,” Mr Gandhi said,.

Mr Gandhi added that farmers, youth, dalits, tribals and women are also victims of this weapon of the government.

Raising the issue of joblessness, which he termed as “Jumla Strike 2”, Mr Gandhi said that against the promise of providing two crore jobs every year, only 4 lakh jobs have been created.

The Congress chief also referred to the amount of Rs 15 lakh that was promised to every Indian by the Bhartiya Janata Party before coming to power after bringing in all black money stashed abroad.

After the debate, Mr Gandhi described Mr Modi’s speech in Lok Sabha as “weak”, while former party chief Sonia Gandhi dubbed it as “old rhetoric”.