Parliament is not a boy's club: TMC leader Derek O'Brien slams Amit Shah

Rejecting an invite for a meeting to clear the doubts of Opposition leaders on CAA-NPR-NRC, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien on Friday said answers and clarifications on issues need to be given in Parliament and not inside some minister's chamber.

O'Brien's remarks came a day after Home Minister Amit Shah invited Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and other senior leaders, including the Trinamool Congress leader, to his chamber to discuss National Population Register (NPR) while replying to a short duration discussion on Delhi riots.

"I reject his invite for a discussion. He has to answer me in Parliament and not in his chamber. Parliament is not a boy's club. You have to come here and answer the hard questions in Parliament. You call three-four MPs to the chamber. I don't go to anybody's chamber to have coffee. I want the answers on the floor of Parliament," O'Brien told reporters.

He also made similar remarks in Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the Direct Tax 'Vivad se Vishwas' Bill.

He said people want answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister HM on the floor of Parliament and "not over coffee or dhokla. "This is not a street-side protest that you call a meeting in your chamber to resolve the issue. This is Parliament," he said.

O'Brien said Shah was to speak on the healing of Delhi after riots but he came and spoke about NPR while not touching upon the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC). "Earlier, you used to mention CAA and NRC together. You have now stopped mentioning NRC in your last few speeches. Why is that?" he said.

Referring to Shah's remarks in Rajya Sabha that no one will be marked "doubtful" during the NPR exercise, he said the Citizenship Rules 2003 makes it clear that the an individual or a family would be marked "doubtful citizen" or have "doubtful citizenship" during the verification process of the NPR, which is a step before the NRC.

Seeking to pick holes in Shah's assurance, he said, "these rules are not amended yet. NPR is a door-to-door survey and once NPR is collated, a verification process will mark doubtful. Thus residents will not be marked doubtful during the NPR but after it. NPR is the first step towards NRC."

He said he asked several questions during the debate except for one, Shah did not answer anyone. "The Home Minister also did not provide any healing touch to Delhiites who suffered in the riots," he said.

"Shah said all social media accounts that spread hate speeches will be brought to book. My question is will the Prime Minister and the Home Minister stop following social media accounts that spread bigotry? He says Delhi Police did a good job. If that was the case, why was the chain of command superseded and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was sent," he said.