The Government and Opposition clashed in lok Sabha on Friday, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh accusing the Congress of weakening the fight against terror by coining the term “Hindu terrorism.”
After making a statement on the Gurdaspur terror strike, the Home Minister said the previous UPA Government had coined the term “Hindu terror” to change the course of probes into incidents of terrorism.
In the middle of noisy protests, Singh attacked the Congress for making it appear that Parliament was divided on terrorism. He said the Government was ready to discuss the issue of terrorism.
In the statement in the Rajya Sabha, he gave details of the July 27 attack and how the three terrorists had infiltrated from Pakistan via Punjab border using the Ravi River and planted five explosives on the way.
While Singh made his statement, the Congress suspended its protests with all hearing him in silence.
Soon after the completion of the statement, Congress members again stormed the Well of the House and it was a repeat of scenes of protests and disruptions in the House as seen from day one of the Monsoon Session over the lalit Modi and Vyapam scam issues.
The Home Minister again got up to raise a host of issues, including the term ‘Hindu terrorism’ coined by the previous UPA Government, Sharm-el-Sheikh fiasco and statements at Havana NAM Summit besides the 1962 war with China, to underline the Congress’ alleged failures.
Terrorism is the biggest challenge facing the country. Neither Parliament nor the country should appear divided on this... On the one hand, our jawans are making the supreme sacrifice while fighting against terror, while on the other we have this noise and disruption. How can the country accept this,” he said.
“In this House in 2013, the then Home Minister (P Chidambaram) had coined the new terminology ‘Hindu terrorism’ in order to change the course of a probe. Because of this, we have not been able to fight terrorism as strongly as we should be... As a consequence, Hafiz Saeed (leT founder) had congratulated the then Home Minister for coining the new term ‘Hindu terrorism’. Our Government will never allow such a shameful situation again.”
He recited a Hindi poem to target the foreign policy of previous Congress Governments, saying “China snatched India’s rose, Tashkent saw death of lal Bahadur Shastri, and India lost at the diplomatic table after winning the war due to its compromises.”
Indignant Congress members wanted to react but were not allowed by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, prompting angry protests by Opposition MPs, many of whom were seen waving the rule book to make their point. “This is very unfortunate…,” Kharge was heard remarking amid the ongoing Congress sloganeering with placards.
Opposition members crowded around her table to press their demand for allowing Kharge to speak, but it did not yield any result.
later, she also asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to present a statement on supplementary demands for grants in respect of Budget 2015-16. The Speaker then adjourned the House till 2 pm.
When the House re-assembled, Kharge charged the Home Minister with dividing Parliament by “doing politics” over terrorism and asserted that his party will not tolerate it.
He urged Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai to expunge Singh’s comments which he had made after his statement on the Gurdaspur attack. The demand was turned down by the Chair. Kharge said the country was one and there was no compromise on terrorism and integrity of the country.
The Congress leader then attacked Singh over his suo motu comments.
“Just to divide this House and to blame the Congress, he said what China did... Was it necessaryIJ He did it just to defame the previous Governments. This is not a political statement. You are doing politics. We won’t tolerate that. It should be expunged,” the Congress leader said in the absence of Singh in the House.
Kharge was supported by Saugata Roy (TMC) who wondered why Singh
“went into a rampaging speech” after the entire House listened to him in rapt attention on the terror strike.