Rahul Gandhi responds to French govt statement on Rafale deal

He called the no-trust motion the work of Congress arrogance and slammed the party for not “trusting” the programmes and initiatives of his government and institutions like the Chief Justice of India, Reserve Bank of India and EVMs. Stunned with Gandhi’s sharp speech followed by a “bear hug”, PM Modi took some time to recover.

“Who is being helped, why is the help being given, Niramala ji, the prime minister should tell the country”.

He said the Prime Minister had promised to be a “chowkidar” but had become a “bhagidar”.

Modi’s government has a clear majority in the 545-member lower house of parliament, but the opposition is hoping to make political gains by focusing attention on slow job growth and deteriorating law and order.

This statement comes in relation to a 2016 speech of Rahul Gandhi, where he said that the Parliament will jolt if he is given 15 minutes to speak.

Modi also said then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee created three states: Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand after talking to the people concerned and taking their consent.

Rahul Gandhi hugs Narendra Modi.

While many Congress MPs congratulated him for the “great speech” and the “hug-shock”, some leaders felt he had overreached himself and a few described it as “childish”.

Trinamool Congress claimed BJP would be defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by a united opposition that would join hands for a “one-to-one” fight in each constituency and added that the ruling party had already lost the confidence of its allies and the people.

He said the Congress and other opposition parties will use the occasion to highlight the failures of the government and show them the mirror.

The BJP leaders have been acting “out of fear” as “other processes” will start if they lose power and this has generated anger which is “crushing” India, Gandhi said. “She destabilised Atal-Ji’s government and never formed one herself”, he said.

“India will be watching us closely”, he said.

“I personally met the French president and asked him if there is such a pact between the French and Indian governments”. But, I want to say this from the bottom of my heart that I am very grateful to the Prime Minister, the BJP and the RSS. The Prime Minister did not give any concrete Promises to Andhra Pradesh and once again only repeated that the Central Government is committed to the development of Andhra Pradesh.

His allegations against the Prime Minister were objected to by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar who quoted Parliamentary rules, saying no allegation of defamatory nature can be levelled against any minister, including Prime Minister, without giving adequate notice.