The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP of making the “Parliament a one-sided partisan thing” amid reports that the ruling party’s poll symbol “Lotus” is being printed on the new uniform for Parliament staff.
The party alongwith other Opposition parties also opposed the lowering of import duty on American apples, claiming it would prove detrimental to apple growers of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
They demanded an immediate withdrawal of the reported order to reduce import duty on American apples, saying it would destroy the economy of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore questioned why the ‘Lotus’ was being added and not a tiger or a peacock, the national animal and the national bird respectively. “Why is the government not ready to put Tiger in the Parliament staff’s dress, because Tiger is the national animal.
Why are they not ready to put the Peacock, which is the national bird, in the dress? But they chose to put the Lotus in the dress code of the Parliamentary staff, because the BJP’s symbol is the Lotus,” Tagore said in a statement. “How cheap they are. They did it in G20 also. Now also they are doing it and saying it is the national flower.
This kind of pettiness is not right. Hope the BJP grows up and not make the Parliament a one-sided partisan thing,” he alleged. Tagore said the Parliament is becoming a part of a party’s symbol.
The opposition party alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was giving a “gift” to the United States by reducing the import duty while doing injustice to farmers of the country engaged in apple cultivation.
“What happened to the slogan of ‘vocal for local’? Why is the prime minister trying to please the Americans by offering concessions?” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters.
According to reports, days before US President Joe Biden’s bilateral with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi ahead of the G20 Summit, the Centre announced the removal of additional duties on about half a dozen US products, including apples, walnuts, almonds and lentils.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also appealed to the Centre to reconsider its decision to remove the additional duty on apples, walnuts and almonds imported from the US.