NEW DELHI: Saying that he had utmost respect for the PM, Gogoi accused the treasury benches of a tendency to insult former PMs time and again and their utterances were always part of parliamentary record.
At this, Sitharaman snapped at Gogoi saying that he had said something very profound (respect for the PM), “it is music to my ears to hear a leading member of the opposition say that he respects the PM.” She wondered whether Gogoi would also apologise for abusing the PM on previous occasions.
Sitharaman said the opposition has abused Modi who has not even been allowed to speak in the House on occassions. “They stood in the Well and shouted. Will the honourable member Gogoi apologise for the number of times they have abused the prime minister. Today, he is whitewashing all that. That is not allowed. He should have the grace to admit that they have abused the prime minister, it was wrong and they would not do it again,” she said.
Gogoi hit back asking Sitharaman to refer to the PM’s (Modi) speech in Lok Sabha last month. “His entire speech was abusive of former prime ministers. Before pointing fingers, look within, introspect,” the Congress leader said.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey cited rules to claim that Gogoi was not speaking on the supplementary demands for grants which were listed for discussion. He had a heated exchange with opposition members and asserted that he cannot be shouted down by them, to which Gogoi finally addressed Birla to ask whether he was chairman or it was Dubey. That saw Dubey going silent and remained seated till the end of Gogoi’s speech.
Birla advised Gogoi to keep to the topic listed for discussion and not deviate, to which the Congress MP contended that, he was speaking on Manipur and wanted to know why the budget had to be passed in Parliament and not in the state assembly.
