Mohua Chatterjee
NEW DELHI: An aggressive INDIA Opposition parties on Thursday refused to allow the Presidential address for the 18thLok Sabha to be made without being punctuated by sloganeering and remarks against issues that were taken up. Even the Vice President’s speech was countered by repartee from the opposition benches.
With the Opposition deciding mounting a focussed attack on the Narendra Modi government with the NEET paper leak issue, the mention of the issue by President Droupadi Murmu, saying that the government will ensure that the matter is resolved at the earliest and that an independent probe will be held to find the guilty and punish them, opposition benches led by Congress, TMC, DMK, SP and others started shouting that the minister should resign since no probe can be independent if the HRD minister remains in the chair.
When President Murmu touched the issue of the government’s commitment to empowering women or “Nari Shakti,” the jeering from the opposition benches was about the Manipur situation. “Why did nobody go to Manipur when the state was burning… why did nobody look into the way women became victim of violence in the state…” they kept asking in a chorus.
When the Presidential speech touched on how the third Modi government had a strong majority or had a “sakht bahumat,” the opposition benches jeered saying the government was formed of parties which did not have its own majority in the House. Leading the charge was TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee among others, who kept saying “no party had a majority on its own,” in an obvious reference to the new NDA government led by BJP which has fallen short of the majority mark of 272, by 32 seats.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee also took on vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, when he spoke on Emergency. “You were also in the Congress then (during Emergency years) and were supporting Emergency… so how can you talk against it now,” Banerjee kept shouting. The TMC has a history of bitterness with Dhankhar, who was governor of West Bengal before he became vice President.
With the Opposition deciding mounting a focussed attack on the Narendra Modi government with the NEET paper leak issue, the mention of the issue by President Droupadi Murmu, saying that the government will ensure that the matter is resolved at the earliest and that an independent probe will be held to find the guilty and punish them, opposition benches led by Congress, TMC, DMK, SP and others started shouting that the minister should resign since no probe can be independent if the HRD minister remains in the chair.
When President Murmu touched the issue of the government’s commitment to empowering women or “Nari Shakti,” the jeering from the opposition benches was about the Manipur situation. “Why did nobody go to Manipur when the state was burning… why did nobody look into the way women became victim of violence in the state…” they kept asking in a chorus.
When the Presidential speech touched on how the third Modi government had a strong majority or had a “sakht bahumat,” the opposition benches jeered saying the government was formed of parties which did not have its own majority in the House. Leading the charge was TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee among others, who kept saying “no party had a majority on its own,” in an obvious reference to the new NDA government led by BJP which has fallen short of the majority mark of 272, by 32 seats.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee also took on vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, when he spoke on Emergency. “You were also in the Congress then (during Emergency years) and were supporting Emergency… so how can you talk against it now,” Banerjee kept shouting. The TMC has a history of bitterness with Dhankhar, who was governor of West Bengal before he became vice President.