Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi appeared to have dozed off in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday during a discussion on attack on dalits in Gujarat, inviting barbs from the BJP and the BSP while the Cong
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi appeared to have dozed off in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday during a discussion on attack on dalits in Gujarat, inviting barbs from the BJP and the BSP while the Congress defended its vice-president and suggested that he was checking his mobile. The Congress showed a photograph of PM Narendra Modi in the LS from November 2015 to claim it shows he was also sleeping in the House.
Mr Gandhi was caught on Lok Sabha TV with his eyes closed and appeared to be catching forty winks when Union home minister Rajnath Singh was replying to a discussion on the issue of the attack on dalit youths who were skinning a dead cow in Una in Gujarat’s Gir-Somnath district.
The BJP said Mr Gandhi was only interested in doing politics on dalit victims. “If he was really interested in ensuring justice, then he would not be sleeping,” Union minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said.
BSP chief Mayawati said it showed how serious Mr Gandhi was about dalits. “This publicity is going on that he will go to the spot (in Gujarat), but he was sleeping when the issue was being debated in the House,” she said.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said it was an attempt to trivialise an important issue with a “false” story. “The last I heard was that checking one’s cellphone is neither a crime nor negligence.” Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury said, “How can someone sleep amidst so much noise It is so hot outside and we close our eyes inside the House to get relief... after standing in the sun for long outside.”
