The Congress on Thursday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking action against the “inaccurate and misleading” statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anurag Thakur in Parliament, The Indian Express reported.
In a letter to the speaker, Congress MP Manickam Tagore said that the prime minister in his reply to the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address claimed that the Congress had made a “false promise” to give Rs 8,500 per month to women, PTI reported.
The Congress’ promise was conditional to its victory and the party forming the government, Tagore, who represents Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar seat, countered.
Tagore also noted that Modi had claimed that the Congress’ vote share had gone down in 16 states where it contested alone.
“This is factually incorrect,” Tagore said. The party’s vote share increased in various states, including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Telangana, he added.
According to the letter, the prime minister’s allegation that “no bulletproof jackets [were provided] for the Army during the Congress’ time” was also “grossly misleading”, according to The Indian Express.
It said: “There was a shortage of jackets, not that jackets were not there. Even police had bullet proof jackets like in [2008] Mumbai attacks.”
Modi also claimed that the Congress did not ensure that the Army were given fighter jets, Tagore said. “This is misleading. Congress time had Mig 29, Jaguar, Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi SU 30.”
Referring to a speech made by Thakur on July 1 in the Lok Sabha, the letter said that the MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur also claimed that the Army was not given arms and fighter jets during the Congress’ rule.
“We had nuclear bomb, missiles like Agni, Prithvi , Aakash, Nag, Trishul and later Brahmos,” Tagore said.
He also said that Thakur’s claims that Modi had “not taken a single holiday” was “factually incorrect”, PTI reported. “Which category of leave is taken for election campaigns?” he asked.
The letter urged Birla to invoke provisions under Direction 115(1) on the claims made by the two BJP leaders. This direction states that a legislator wishing to highlight an inaccuracy in a statement made by another MP has to write to the speaker before raising the matter in Parliament.
The letter on Thursday came after several portions of the speech delivered by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha on Monday were expunged from the records of Parliament on the orders of the speaker.
The Rae Bareli MP had accused the BJP of propagating hatred and violence against minorities.
He also said that Modi, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh did not represent Hindu society as a whole. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the parent organisation of the BJP.
The Congress leader’s remarks were protested by members of the BJP in Lok Sabha. Modi had even claimed that the Leader of Opposition had accused all Hindus of violence and said that this was a “serious matter”.
Gandhi, however, made the comment in reference to BJP leaders, saying that they claim to be Hindus but only speak of violence and hatred.
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