'Will have to wait for what govt does': Rahul Gandhi upon meeting Speaker Om Birla

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that an agreement has been reached that he will be allowed to raise contentious issues, including Gen MN Naravane, in Lok Sabha but one has to wait for what government does, even as the Congress started collecting signatures seeking removal of Speaker Om Birla accusing him of partisan behaviour.

The Lower House witnessed disruption for the sixth consecutive day over Rahul not being allowed to speak on Gen Naravane's book even as the Speaker held a couple of meetings with the Leader of Opposition and other leaders to find a middle ground to allow the scheduled general discussion on the union budget.

Inside the House, Rahul spoke about Birla agreeing to allow him to speak on the issues but BJP MP Sandhya Rai, who was chairing the proceedings, said the agenda shared with her does not mention it and disallowed it before adjourning the House for the day.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the agreement was that if the LoP raises the issue and makes allegations against the Speaker, other floor leaders will also be allowed to speak and the government would respond.

After a meeting he along with senior Opposition leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Abhishek Banerjee among others had with Birla after the House adjourned, Rahul said that the “agreement” is that he will be allowed to raise four points – Naravane's book, Nishikant Dubey's allegations citing books, suspension of eight MPs and claims of MPs attacking the Prime Minister – on Tuesday.

“We are quite keen that the (Budget) discussion happens. Now let us see what the government does,” he told reporters. However, he said his “personal view” is that the government is “scared to have a debate”, claiming that the Prime Minister did not come to the House because he was “scared of what we are going to say” and “of being handed over” Naravane’s book.

“My guess is that the government is worried about having a discussion on the Budget because of the US deal, the way it was done…impact on farmers is going to be discussed,” he said. The Congress has been insisting that Rahul be allowed to speak before the commencement of the discussion on the Budget.

During the day, the Congress upped the ante with party sources saying that the Opposition would submit a notice to move a resolution seeking removal of the Speaker and tasked some party managers to collect signatures. The signatures of other parties were not collected, amid indications that Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress were not very enthusiastic about the proposal.

With discussions with the Speaker happening, sources said the Congress has decided to wait and renew their efforts if Rahul is not allowed to speak on Tuesday.

Outlining the Opposition’s objections, Rahul said the “story started a few days ago” when the issue of Naravane’s book came and the government “stalled the House” as they did not want him to raise it.

He said the “one big issue” is that the LoP and the entire Opposition was not allowed to speak in the President's Address.

“First, they said that I cannot quote a book. Then I said I am not quoting a book, I am quoting a magazine. Then they said you cannot quote a magazine. I said I will speak about it but they did not want me to speak about it. The Defence Minister said, falsely, that the book has not been published. In fact, the book has been published and we have got a copy of it also," he said.

Without taking Dubey's name, he said the second issue is that one of their MPs, quoting multiple books, spoke “very vile stuff” and it was allowed.

“We don’t like the fact that they can say whatever they want, whenever they want, and the opposition cannot. The third issue is the suspension of our MPs. The final issue, which we are very disturbed about, is this idea that has been floated that MPs were going to threaten the Prime Minister. There’s no question of that,” he said.

“The fact is very clear. The PM was scared to come to the House, not because of the MPs, but because of what I was saying. He is still scared because he cannot face the truth. There’s no question of our MPs attacking the Prime Minister. He should have the courage to come. I also mentioned that if somebody said that he’s going to attack the PM, then please file an FIR, arrest that person. Why are you not doing that?” he said.