Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was suspended from parliament on Thursday during the proceedings of the no-confidence motion for unruly conduct after the suspension motion was brought by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi. The suspension will continue till the investigation of the privileges committee is complete.
Chowdhury during his speech compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Hindu epic Mahabharata’s blind king Dhritarashtra. He said, “Jab Dhritrashtra andhe the, tab Droupadi ka vastra haran hua tha, aaj bhi raja andhe baithe hai… Manipur aur Hastinapur mein koi farq nahi hai”.
Chowdhury had also likened the PM to fugitive Nirav Modi which led to the uproar by the ruling party. Joshi said, “Baseless allegation against the Prime Minister cannot be accepted. This should be expunged and he should apologise.” Home Minister Amit Shah urged the speaker to ask Chowdhury to exercise restraint and maintain the decorum of the house. Following which his words were expunged from the record of the Lok Sabha.
However, Chowdhury said that he did not compare the Prime Minister to the fugitive Nirav Modi but rather said that Narendra Modi is ‘Nirav’ which in pure Hindi means to be silent or quiet. Chowdhury also responded to Amit Shah’s ‘Quit India’ call. He said, “Quit India must happen- quit India from communalisation, quit India from polarisation, quit India from saffronisation.”
As PM Modi entered the parliament during Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s speech “The power of no-confidence motion has brought the Prime Minister in the Parliament today. None of us were thinking about this no-confidence motion. We were only demanding that PM Modi should come to the Parliament and speak on the Manipur issue. We were not demanding any BJP member to come to the Parliament, we were only demanding our PM to come”.
Chowdhury also spoke on violence-hit Manipur saying, “The violence in Manipur is not a small issue. Manipur is facing ethnic violence and a civil war. It has assumed global dimension and was discussed in European Parliament as well as in America. Manipur issue cannot be confined to any state…and that is why Prime Minister’s intervention is indispensable.”
