Parliament stalemate: Opposition joins the ranks after Rahul Gandhi is stopped from speaking on Naravane’s 'memoir'

Opposition leaders to meet ahead of the session today to finetune floor strategy

New Delhi: The Opposition feels that the turn of events in Parliament after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was disallowed to continue his speech by quoting  from General M M Naravane’s unreleased 'memoir' will work to their advantage.

Rahul and the Opposition have brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi under direct line of fire and accused him of “running away” from the debate as he did not speak on Wednesday as expected.

Opposition sources insist that Rahul displaying a copy of Gen Naravane’s book inside and outside Parliament amid the government asking “where is the book” and an otherwise divided Opposition joining hands to make it clear that Modi’s speech will be disrupted if the LoP is not allowed to conclude his speech have put the ruling BJP on the backfoot.

After a meeting of Congress floor leaders chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress general secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said the Prime Minister’s reply can happen only after the LoP’s speech. Opposition leaders are meeting on Thursday morning to finetune floor strategy.

Rahul had insisted that he would read out the relevant portions from the ‘memoir’ that questions Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on tackling China though some of his party colleagues had suggested that he should table it and move on. Sources said the government’s response to deny him an opportunity has given the Opposition a chance to design the narrative.

Senior Opposition leaders like Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee have made it clear that their parties are fully behind Rahul on this issue. In his letter to Speaker Om Birla, Rahul said not allowing an LoP to speak is a “blot on democracy”.

Senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters, “He (Modi) got scared and that is why he did not come to the House.”

Earlier, Rahul, with a copy of the book in his hand, said he would give one to Modi but he does not expect him to come to the House to reply to the debate.

Stepping up pressure, eight suspended MPs, including seven from the Congress, have started a dharna at the Makar Dwar with a banner having images of Modi and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the words ‘PM compromised’. Congress MPs also protested at Birla's office over allowing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey to refer to books on former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after disallowing Rahul to do so.

Opposition sources also point to the debate the motion of thanks to the President’s address, one of the first items on agenda in any Budget Session, not making much headway, as only three MPs — two from BJP and one from TDP — managing to complete their speech and two other BJP lawmakers making short interventions to make political points.

The debate as of now is “derailed” and to bring it back on the rail, the government will have to allow the LoP to speak, a senior Opposition leader told DH.

While the Rajya Sabha has moved forward on the debate, the Lok Sabha has seen a stalemate since Monday afternoon. In the Lok Sabha, BJP’s Sarbananda Sonowal and Tejasvi Surya and TDP’s GM Harish Balayogi have spoken while BJP’s Dubey and PP Chaudhary made brief speeches targeting the Congress.

Priyanka was quick to attribute Dubey’s intervention to the government's attempt to disrupt Parliament.

Opposition sources said Dubey referring to books on Nehru and others as well as Chaudhary alleging that the Congress was insulting Dalits by disobeying instructions of Krishna Prasad Tenneti and Sandhya Rai, who were chairing Lok Sabha proceedings, were part of a “narrative building but it would not cut much ice”.