Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday faced off in a war of words, signalling stormy times in Parliament during the budget session.
Accusing Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi of not having adjusted to their defeat in the 2014 general election and therefore obstructing Parliament and the passage of important Bills, Prime Minister Narendra Modi minced no words in attacking the Gandhi family. He was addressing tea garden workers in Assam, a State set to go to the polls in the early part of the year. “Those who have lost the election [in 2014] and have come down from 400 [seats] to 40 have decided not to allow Modi to work. They have decided to create obstacles and difficulties. The conspiracy is going on,” he said.
In Delhi, Mr. Gandhi said: “The job of the Prime Minister is to run the government, not to make excuses.”
“They have now decided to take revenge on people, on the poor workers for voting the Congress out of power,” he claimed. “The country is not going to benefit from this politics of negativism and obstructionism. There is only one family with such a thinking, which has brought this kind of destruction. Leaders in the other Opposition parties are not like this.”
Mr. Gandhi, who was in Delhi addressing Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) while the Prime Minister was speaking in Assam, reacted sharply to these words.
“The job of the Prime Minister is to run the government, not make excuses,” he said in a hard-hitting jibe. “All that the Prime Minister has been doing for the last 18 months is to make excuses for why the economy is not running, why the farmer is not getting his due, why the labourers are not getting what they should get,” he said. “India did not choose Modiji to make excuses, they chose a leader, and he should not make excuses.”
Mr. Gandhi also said that he found it “surprising” that “big industrialists” were complaining to him [Rahul Gandhi]. “Big industrialists are coming to us and telling us that Modiji may be running the government for us, but he is not able to do our work. Therefore Modiji will certainly make excuses. This government acts only in the interest of three or four of its crony capitalist friends,” he said.
The sharp exchange of words between the Prime Minister and the Congress vice-president has put a huge question mark on the functioning of the budget session. Just a day earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had held a meeting with Opposition leaders to consult them on the dates for the session, and had hoped that contentious legislation, like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill could be cleared.
