Speaking on the no-confidence motion, Rahul Gandhi accused the government of setting Manipur, Haryana and the whole country on fire.
Rahul Gandhi speaking in Lok Sabha. (Screengrab)
In a blistering speech, recently reinstated MP from Wayanad constituency in Kerala and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Narendra Modi government of setting the whole country on fire.
“You have led to the death of India in Manipur. Your politics is an onslaught on my motherland. You are not patriots,” thundered Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha.
His exact words were expunged from the official records of the Lok Sabha late on Wednesday evening. Until the time of filing of this report, the Lok Sabha had not issued any bulletin regarding the expunged words that were repeated by Union Minister Smriti Irani in her response to Rahul Gandhi.
His accusations sent the ruling party MPs into a tizzy with Union Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju seeking an apology from Gandhi.
The former president of the AICC launched a full-fledged attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre and the state level in Manipur for abandoning the Northeastern state that has been violence-torn for months now.
In a frontal attack on the BJP over violence in Manipur, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 9 August, alleged that its politics had “(word expunged) Bharat Mata” in the Northeastern state and termed members of the ruling party “anti-nationals”.
Participating in the no-confidence motion debate, Gandhi also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting Manipur and alleged that he did not consider the state to be part of India.
“I went to Manipur a few days ago. Our prime minister has not gone there, he has not gone there till now. He does not consider Manipur a part of India. I used the word Manipur, but the reality is there is no Manipur left. You have divided Manipur into two parts, you have broken up Manipur,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi said he visited Manipur and met women and children at the relief camps, but the prime minister had not done so.
The prime minister was not in the House when Gandhi spoke.
“I asked a woman, ‘What happened with you?’ She said, ‘My small son, an only child, was shot before my eyes. I spent the whole night with the body of my child and then I felt afraid. I left my house’. I asked her if she had brought along something with her and she said only the clothes she wearing and a photo,” Gandhi said, narrating his experience.
In another camp, he said he asked a woman the same question — “What happened with you?” — as he did so, she started trembling and fainted.
“These are the two examples. In Manipur, they (BJP) have (word expunged) Hindustan. Their politics has not (word expunged) Manipur but (word expunged) Hindustan in Manipur… By (word expunged) the people of Manipur you have (word expunged) Bharat Mata, you are not desh bhakts (patriots) but (word expunged),” the former Congress chief said.
As the treasury benches protested and slammed Gandhi, Rijiju said the Congress leader should apologise for his remarks as it was the Congress which was responsible for insurgency and other problems in the Northeast.
Continuing his no-holds-barred attack against the government in his over 30-minute speech, Gandhi went on to say that it was the Army that could bring peace to Manipur but the government was not deploying it.
“You have (word expunged) the voice of India, which means you have (word expunged) Bharat Mata in Manipur… My mother is sitting here. The other mother, Bharat Mata, you (word expunged) in Manipur,” he said, pointing to Sonia Gandhi who was present in the House.
“You have sprinkled kerosene everywhere. You have set fire to Manipur. You are now trying the same thing in Haryana,” he added, referring to recent communal clashes in Gurugram and Nuh.
Gandhi alleged that the prime minister listened to only two people, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and industrialist Gautam Adani, just as Ravana paid heed to only two. He did not elaborate on the point.
The former Congress president also said the Bharat Jodo Yatra was not over and he undertook the cross-country march to understand what was it he loved and for what had he faced abuse for 10 years.
The Congress leader also thanked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for reinstating his membership of the House.
“The last time I spoke, I also caused you (BJP) pain. I focussed on Adani ji with such intensity, your (word expunged) felt pain. That pain also affected you, for that I apologise to you,” Gandhi told Birla.
“I only spoke the truth. My BJP friends you need not be afraid because my speech today will not be focussed on us. Rumi said, ‘Jo shabd dil se aate hain woh dil mein jaate hain‘. Will not attack you much.”
“I walked from one end of the country to another, from the coast to the snowy mountains of Kashmir. The yatra is still not over … Many people asked me after it started, ‘Rahul why did you walk, what is your aim’.”
“I did not know why I wanted to walk but I soon understood the thing that I love and the thing for which I am willing to die and go to Modi ji’s jail, the thing for which I bore abuse for 10 years, I wanted to understand,” he said.
The no-confidence motion has been brought by the Congress on behalf of the opposition grouping INDIA. The debate was initiated on Tuesday by Congress’ Gaurav Gogoi. It will conclude with the prime minister’s reply on Thursday.
Many Rajya Sabha members were in the gallery when he spoke.
Speaking soon after Gandhi concluded his speech on the no-confidence debate in the House, Smriti Irani, who is minister for women and child development, said Manipur was an integral part of India.
“I condemn the behaviour that was displayed. This is the first time that someone talked about the (word expunged) of India, and Congress leaders were thumping desks,” Irani said.
“Manipur is not divided, it is a part of this country. A member of his (Opposition) alliance said in Tamil Nadu that India only means north India. If he has the courage, Rahul Gandhi should comment on this… another Congress leader said there should be a referendum on Kashmir… Was the statement given as per the order of the Congress leadership that a leader talked about the referendum in Kashmir?” she said.
“You are not India because you define corruption in India, you define incompetence… you are not India,” the BJP MP said, attacking the Congress.
Mentioning Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, she said, “I will not speak on joint pains… the valley that India has seen to be soaked in blood, (but) when they went there, they were playing with snowballs. That was possible after Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi abrogated Article 370.”
“He said he went on a yatra and gave assurance that they will restore Article 370… Article 370 will never be restored,” Irani asserted.
She also recounted the horrors of the Emergency to attack the Congress, saying the party’s history was smeared in blood. The BJP MP also raised the issues of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the unrest in Kashmir during Congress regimes at the Centre.
(With PTI inputs)
Note: This copy has been updated to reflect the changes made in parliamentary records with regards to words that were expunged late Wednesday evening on the orders of the Chair.
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