Taking a swipe at Opposition bloc INDIA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today questioned why Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress’s leader in Lok Sabha, was not in the list of speakers in the no-confidence debate and wondered if a “call from Bengal” was behind the decision.
The Prime Minister’s “call from Bengal” barb referred to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Chowdhury, also the Bengal Congress chief, has been a vocal critic of the Trinamool government on issues such as chit fund scam and political violence in the eastern state.
The Prime Minister’s swipe doubles down on the BJP’s pitch that the INDIA alliance is an alliance of convenience and suggests that it was the Trinamool who pushed the Congress to keep Chowdhury out of the speakers’ list.
The Prime Minister wondered why the leader of the largest Opposition party in Lok Sabha was “sidelined” during the no-confidence debate. “Sharad Pawar had led the 1999 no-confidence motion against Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi in 2003. In 2018, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge led the debate. But this time, look at what happened to Adhir Chowdhury. His party didn’t let him speak,” he said.
The Prime Minister said Speaker Om Birla did give Chowdhury an opportunity to speak but that too was wasted. Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah had taken a dig at the Congress for not listing Chowdhury as a speaker for the big debate. Responding to repeated remarks during his speech, Shah yesterday said that Mr Chowdhury’s party had not given him an opportunity to speak and urged the Speaker to grant him some time.
