Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Center of avoiding scrutiny on national security issues after he was repeatedly prevented from speaking in Parliament while citing former Army chief General MM Naravane’s “memoir”.
He said he would present a book to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming it reveals how the political leadership left the Army to act alone during the 2020 China border crisis.
In a post on Twitter, the Congress leader wrote, “If the Prime Minister comes to Parliament today, I will gift him a book. This book is not by any opposition leader. This book is not even by any foreign author. This book is by the country’s former Army Chief General Naravane, and surprisingly, according to the cabinet ministers, this book does not exist.”
The post reads, “It is clearly written in this book that at that critical moment when the Chinese army entered our border, the Army Chief was made to wait. And when the time came to take a decision, the Prime Minister simply said, ‘Do whatever you feel is right.’ In other words, in the most serious crisis of the country’s security, Modi ji shirked political responsibility. General Naravane himself writes that at that time he felt that the political leadership had left the army alone. This is the truth which I am being stopped from speaking in Parliament. The country is asking questions, and the government is running away from answers.”
Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm today amid heavy sloganeering by opposition members over the suspension of eight MPs during the previous day’s budget session.
The suspended MPs include Congress members Hibi Eden, Amarinder Singh Raja Waring, Manickam Tagore, Gurjit Singh Aujla, Prashant Yadaorao Padole, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy and Dean Kuriakose as well as CPI(M) MP S Venkatesan.
Following the uproar in the House over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on specifically mentioning the 2020 standoff with China in eastern Ladakh, eight opposition members were suspended for the remainder of the Budget session of the Lok Sabha for violating rules and “throwing paper on the chair”.