Rahul Questions PM’s Silence on Rafale Deal in his LS Speech

A feisty day full of jibes and insults, both inside and outside, at Parliament comes to an end.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

(Photo: PTI)

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 7 February, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to answer questions about the Rafale deal, agricultural crises and dearth of jobs instead of making allegations in Parliament.

“He seems to have forgotten that he is the Prime Minister not an Opposition leader,” Gandhi told reporters after Modi's reply in the Lok Sabha to the motion of thanks on the President's address.

Questions are being asked by the country to the Prime Minister, but he is not answering... here (Parliament) you have to give answers and not ask questions to the country instead.

Rahul Gandhi

According to Gandhi, the Prime Minister can talk against the Congress party at a public meeting but will not answer questions posed to him by the country.

"He is right in talking about the Congress party, but this is not the place to raise it. You can raise this issue at a public meeting, but not here.

"Here, you have to answer to the country. You are not to make accusations here...," the Congress president said.

A Farrago of Misrepresentations: Tharoor on Modi's Speech

Hitting out at Modi outside Parliament, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor termed his Lok Sabha speech “a farrago of misrepresentations and half-truth.”

The problem was that all the facts and figures given were simply not the kind of figures that can stand up to detailed scrutiny, and I think the public would realise this.

Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader

Even as the Prime Minister delivered his address at the Lok Sabha, the Opposition raised loud slogans of “Band Karo!” and “Nahi Chalega!”, disrupting the proceedings of the House.

Reacting to the Opposition’s sloganeering, Modi accused the Congress of dividing the nation through partition.

I see that whenever we are criticised by select Opposition parties, the substance is lacking. They go back to saying, ‘when we were in power...’ This is the same party that divided India. 

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

“You talk of democracy? Congress and Nehru didn’t give us democracy. We had democracy in our values and traditions even before Independence,” Modi said.