New Delhi: Political differences gave way to a brief spell of nostalgia in Parliament on Thursday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded his predecessor Manmohan Singh for setting an “inspirational example” in the Rajya Sabha.
Bidding farewell to the retiring members of the Upper House of Parliament, Modi praised the former for his long standing commitment to lead the House and the country.
“The way Manmohan Singh guided the country for a long time… Whenever our democracy will be mentioned, he will be one of those few esteemed members whose contribution will be always remembered,” PM Modi said about the veteran who led the country from 2004 to 2014.
“Several times during discussions, we attacked each other… But it is temporary. I remember in the other House during voting, it was known that treasury benches would win but Manmohan Singh came on his wheelchair and cast his vote, thus setting an example of a member alert of his duties. He was an inspirational example,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter who he was supporting. I believe that he was supporting our democracy.”
Modi was referring to Singh’s presence in Parliament despite his failing health to attend a discussion on the Delhi Services Bill, 2023 during which he sat on a wheelchair in the Rajya Sabha.
The prime minister’s praise before the plan to bring out a white paper on the Indian economy during the UPA years is being seen as the BJP’s strategy to selectively praise veterans like Pranab Mukherjee and target the Gandhi family-led Congress for corruption ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
Modi did not let go of the opportunity to attack the Congress and its president Mallikarjun Kharge who Thursday released a black paper, titled ’10 Saal Anyay Kaal 2014-2024 (10 years of injustice)’, on the Modi government.
Taking a swipe at the opposition party’s protest, the PM said that Parliament got a chance to watch a “fashion show in black clothes”.
“Sometimes some work is so good that it is useful in the long run. If we do something good then a relative comes to our family and applies black ‘tikka’. Today, Kharge ji has come wearing a black mark so that no one can see the work done in the last 10 years. Today, it is a good thing that senior MPs like you have come wearing black tilak so that our actions do not get noticed,” he said.
Also Read: Modi tears into Congress in RS — ‘strangled democracy, now creating narrative of North-South divide’
‘Democracy is not all about size’
On his part, Kharge, meanwhile, attacked the government for passing bills in the House by suspending the opposition members.
“(First Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha) S. Radhakrishnan had said that this House is to check the quality of bills passed after scrutiny but you are not listening to his words. The bills are passed without sending them to standing committees and even suspending members of parliament. Democracy is not all about size, but also about how qualitatively we are running it,” the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said.
The Congress president also took a swipe at former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch H. D. Deve Gowda for joining hands with the BJP.
“I don’t know how he made a partnership with the BJP at the end of his career. He fought for farmers and secularism throughout life. He told me that he will not become the chief minister as you don’t have any man behind who has big money in his pocket,” Kharge said.
Gowda retorted saying that Kharge is an honest leader but that it was his party which did not choose him as the (Karnataka) chief minister and that the Congress betrayed (H.D) Kumaraswamy.
Among the members who spoke were SP’s Jaya Bachchan and Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya. While the former spoke about how the Upper House’s integrity should be protected at all cost, Mandaviya recalled how he was taken to task by JD(U)’s K. C. Tyagi, the chairman of a standing committee, by removing him from the panel for skipping four meetings.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Fact sheet on Nehru & Indira’s ‘blunders’, white paper on economy — how BJP plans to target Congress