On Thursday, the Congress party lodged a formal complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Anurag Thakur for allegedly making “factually incorrect, inaccurate and misleading statements” in Parliament.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore requested the invocation of provisions under direction 115(1) to address the statements made by PM Modi and Thakur. Tagore specifically criticized Thakur’s claim that PM Modi has never taken a holiday, questioning the categorization of election campaigns in terms of leave.
During his response to the motion of thanks to the President’s address, PM Modi criticized Congress’s promise of Rs 8,500 per month to women, noting it was contingent on winning the election and forming a government. Tagore countered this by alleging that PM Modi made misleading statements about Congress’s vote share, stating that their vote share had actually increased in states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, and Telangana.
Addressing PM Modi’s assertion that Congress did not provide bulletproof jackets to the Army, Tagore clarified that there was a shortage, not a complete absence, of jackets, citing that even the police had bulletproof jackets during incidents like the Mumbai attacks. He also highlighted that under Congress rule, India possessed advanced military equipment, including Jaguar, Mig 29, SU-30, and Mirage 2000 aircraft.
Tagore also rebutted Thakur’s claim that Congress failed to equip the Army with arms and fighter jets, listing India’s possession of nuclear bombs and missiles such as Agni, Prithvi, Aakash, Nag, Trishul, and BrahMos.
In his letter, Tagore labeled PM Modi’s and Thakur’s statements as “grossly misleading,” urging the Lok Sabha Speaker to take appropriate action to uphold the integrity of parliamentary proceedings.