New Delhi: A row erupted in the Lok Sabha on Monday when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sought to quote from an unpublished “memoir” of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict, but faced strong opposition from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other BJP members who accused the Congress leader of misleading the House.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla disallowed Gandhi from raising the issue, but he did not relent and several opposition leaders also rallied behind him. The House was adjourned twice and later for the day amid uproar as heated exchanges took place between the treasury and opposition benches.
Earlier, as Gandhi rose to speak on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address, he said he would first like to respond to the charges made by the previous speaker, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, against the Congress on nationalism and began quoting from what he said was the “memoir” of Gen. Naravane (retd) talking about the India-China conflict of 2020.
However, Defence Minister Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah strongly protested and asked Gandhi to clarify whether the book had been published or not.
The uproar went on for about 50 minutes with Speaker Om Birla repeatedly saying that no book or newspaper clipping can be quoted on a matter not related to the proceedings of the House, and Gandhi insisting that the document was authenticated and he could quote from it.
Government sources said Gandhi was reading “concocted things” on China. They said there was ample material in the public domain on the decisions taken by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on China, and alleged that he “surrendered thousands of acres of land just to further his own statesmanship”.
Gandhi said he never wanted to speak on the particular issue, but decided to do so after BJP’s Surya questioned the patriotism of the Congress party.
Rajnath Singh maintained that the book had not been published. Gandhi then said he was quoting from a magazine article to put forth his views.
Birla again disallowed it and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju called for the Speaker’s ruling to be adhered to.
Rijiju said if the Leader of Opposition repeatedly ignores the Speaker’s ruling and flouts rules, the House will have to discuss what action should be taken against such a member.
The minister said Gandhi was setting a wrong example for young MPs by not following the rules of the House.
When Gandhi persisted, the Speaker repeatedly warned him against quoting the book.
Singh then got up and asked if the book was not allowed to be published as alleged, then why didn’t Naravane go to court against it. The defence minister also accused Gandhi of “misleading” the House.
“I want to ask just one question — If the book he has been talking about… I don’t know whether such a book exists or not; if the facts in that book were correct and it was not being allowed to be published, then Naravane could have gotten orders from the courts,” Singh said.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav supported Gandhi and urged the Speaker to allow the Congress leader to speak.
Home Minister Shah also repeatedly questioned Gandhi over not adhering to the Speaker’s directive and also clarified that Surya had not cast aspersion on the patriotism of the Congress but only spelt out what was stated by the government through the President’s addresses between 2004-2014.
With both the treasury and opposition MPs unrelenting, the Speaker adjourned the House till 3 pm. When the House reassembled at 3 pm, Gandhi again attempted to raise the India-China border issue and met with stiff resistance from the treasury benches.
Rijiju said Gandhi should not say things that belittle the army.
As the deadlock continued, Birla adjourned the House till 4 pm.
Later, when the House reassembled, Gandhi said he was raising a matter of national security.
“It is uncomfortable for the defence minister and the prime minister, I understand. I consider national security the most important issue. If it was not uncomfortable, they would have let me speak, but the fact they are not allowing me to speak shows that they are uncomfortable,” Gandhi said.
Several opposition leaders, including TMC’s Mahua Moitra and Kalyan Banerjee, RJD’s Manoj Jha, and SP chief Yadav, supported Gandhi on the issue.
