Will boycott PM, says Cong

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked his predecessor Manmohan Singh with the “raincoat” jibe, the Congress on Thursday said it will boycott him till he apologises.

The Congress raised the issue inside and outside Parliament and found allies in Opposition parties against the prime minister for his remarks made during the reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address on Wednesday.

The Congress and other Opposition parties forced the adjournment of the Rajya Sabha twice during the morning session demanding an apology from Modi. Besides the Congress MPs, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav, too, raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha where they also objected to denying a chance to reply to certain remarks made by Modi on them.

While it disrupted the morning session, the Opposition allowed the discussion on Budget in the afternoon session. Initiating the discussion, former finance minister P Chidambaram said Modi should remember that the chair he sat on was used by Jawaharlal Nehru and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee and hence he should use the right language.

The Congress had on Wednesday night worked the telephone lines securing support for Singh in the Rajya Sabha, a source said.

“We will boycott the prime minister. We will not listen to him, but we will not assault the dignity of the office of the prime minister. At the same time, we will continue to protest, we know that he is an obdurate person,” Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma told reporters.