Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday hailed his party MPs’ performance during the debates in both Houses on Vande Mataram and election reforms, and claimed that the Government’s narrative was shredded to pieces by the Opposition. The Congress Lok Sabha MPs also observed silence to pay their respects to former Union minister Shivraj Patil, who passed away on Thursday morning in Latur.
However, what irked the grand old party once again was the complete absence of senior party MP Shashi Tharoor. Party sources said Tharoor had already informed the party about his unavailability. Another senior Congress leader and Chandigarh MP Manish Tiwari, was also absent in the meeting.
According to Shashi Tharoor’s social media post, he was at an event hosted by Prabha Khaitan Foundation in Kolkata last night. Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on December 1, clarified that he did not intentionally skip the Congress strategic group meeting held a day earlier, stating that he was on a flight returning from Kerala when the meeting took place.
Responding to questions on his absence, the Lok Sabha MP said, “I did not skip it; I was on a plane, coming from Kerala.”
Tharoor also skipped a meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhi to discuss the party’s strategy for the Winter Session, which drew wide attention within political circles, especially given that he had also missed the Congress meeting on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue earlier, citing ill health.
Rahul, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, chaired a meeting with Congress MPs in the Lower House and also heard the views of the party legislators, besides taking their feedback.
During the meeting, Rahul told party MPs that the Government seemed “under pressure” from the Opposition on both issues, sources said. “There was an acrimonious debate on Vande Mataram and SIR (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls). I felt good because in both the debates, we shredded their narrative to pieces (dhajjiya uda di unki),” Rahul said, speaking with reporters in Parliament House complex.
After the MPs meet, Rahul claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was disturbed during the SIR debate and even used an abusive word in Parliament. “So, he was mentally disturbed and under pressure and there is a reason for that — the whole structure is involved in vote chori, the whole country knows it,” he claimed.
Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, said it was discussed during the meeting that the party was successful in raising the current problems of the people, such as IndiGo flight disruptions, air pollution and labour codes issues.
“It was also discussed how during the debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram, Mallikarjun Kharge Ji in the Rajya Sabha and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ji in the Lok Sabha brought the truth before the people and blunted the intentions of politicising the issue,” Gogoi told reporters after the meeting.
“On vote chori, everyone saw how Rahul Gandhi ji challenged the home minister for a debate on the floor of the House on the issues raised by him in the press conferences on the basis of evidence. The home minister was rattled and also made some unparliamentary remarks,” he said.
Congress’s chief whip K Suresh, said it was a routine meeting that Gandhi calls every session to evaluate the performance of MPs and also heard their views and feedback.
