Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party will seek to expunge Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in the Lok Sabha, claiming that they were “full of lies”.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi participated in the debate on the Union Budget. He alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government had “sold Bharat Mata” through the trade deal between India and the United States.
He claimed the deal was a “wholesale surrender” with India’s energy security handed over to the US and farmers’ interests compromised, reported PTI.
The Congress leader also mentioned that Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s name featured in the Epstein files, according to The Indian Express.
The “Epstein files” refer to millions of documents, emails, photos and videos released by the US Department of Justice detailing the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted child sex offender, and his social circle that included politicians, celebrities and several public figures.
The documents released on January 30 contained email exchanges between Puri and Epstein that began in June 2014, reported Al Jazeera.
On Wednesday, Rijiju said that the BJP “will demand expunging of whatever lies Rahul Gandhi has spoken”.
The minister claimed that although Gandhi had promised to authenticate the comments, “he [Gandhi] cannot authenticate them because he lied”.
The BJP leader also accused Gandhi of deliberately lying and then leaving Parliament before others could reply.
“Our party has taken a stand that we will counter Rahul Gandhi’s lies outside, but inside the House, a notice will be issued,” he said.
The Lok Sabha has witnessed disruptions since February 2, with the Opposition protesting against Gandhi not being allowed to quote an excerpt from the unpublished memoir.
Naravane wrote that he had, in line with the protocol, sought “clear direction” from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, General Bipin Rawat, who was the chief of defence staff at the time, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Naravane said that hours after first seeking orders, he had been told by Singh that he had spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that the military was to do whatever it deems appropriate.
The former Army chief wrote in his memoir that this implied that the Indian response was to be “purely a military decision” and that “the onus was now totally on [him]”.
The excerpts from the book that Gandhi had been attempting to quote from in the Lok Sabha had been reported in December 2023 and were quoted by The Caravan magazine on February 1.
BJP MPs had been objecting to the Congress MP speaking on the matter, arguing that he cannot quote from a book that had not yet been released.
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