FM Sitharaman, Gaurav Gogoi spar in Parliament over 'insulting' remarks against Modi

New Delhi: Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sparred in Lok Sabha on Tuesday over the opposition member's remarks targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Initiating a discussion on the supplementary demands for grants, excess grants and the Manipur budget, Gogoi said the prime minister "disappears" whenever an important issue comes up in the country.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla interjected Gogoi and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had informed him about his foreign visit and pointed out that previous prime ministers too have undertaken visits abroad during Parliament sessions. Modi is on an official visit to Mauritius.

Gogoi said he has utmost respect for the prime minister, but it was the tendency of the Treasury benches to insult former prime ministers time and again and their utterances were always part of parliamentary record.

At this point, Sitharaman said Gogoi had made some "profound" remarks and added there were a number of occasions when the prime minister was not allowed to speak in the House.

"It was music to my ears to hear a leading member of the opposition say that he respects the PM only to add quickly - when the treasury talks about the previous prime ministers, it is not in a respectable language," Sitharaman said, and wondered whether Gogoi would also apologise for abusing the prime minister on previous occasions.

The finance minister said the opposition has abused Modi and he was even not allowed to speak in the House.

"They stood in the Well and shouted. Will the honourable member Gogoi apologise for the number of times they have abused the prime minister. Today, he is whitewashing all that. That is not allowed. He should have the grace to admit that they have abused the prime minister, it was wrong and they would not do it again," she said.

Gogoi hit back at Sitharaman and asked her to refer to the prime minister's speech in Lok Sabha last month.

"His entire speech was abusive of former prime ministers. Before pointing fingers, look within, introspect," the Congress leader said.

BJP member Nishikant Dubey also cited rules to claim that Gogoi was not speaking on the supplementary demands for grants which were listed for discussion in the House.

Dubey also had a heated exchange with the opposition members and asserted that he cannot be shouted down by them.

The Lok Sabha Speaker advised Gogoi to speak on the topic listed for discussion and not deviate into other issues.

Gogoi, however, contended that he was speaking on Manipur and wanted to understand why the budget was not presented in the state assembly.