New Delhi: Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raking up Jawaharlal Nehru’s “mistakes”, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Monday called for a debate in the Lok Sabha on the “insults” and “complaints” against the country’s first prime minister to “close the chapter” on it once and for all.
“And after that, let us discuss today’s issues like unemployment, inflation, women’s issues….,” she said, participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on 150 years of the national song Vande Mataram.
The Congress general secretary also said that though Modi gives good speeches, he has a shortcoming: he is weak on facts.
Launching a strong defence of Nehru, who treasury-bench members repeatedly criticised during the debate, Priyanka Gandhi said Modi has been the prime minister for about 12 years now and Nehru had spent about those many years in jail for the country’s independence.
“Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru lived for this country and breathed his last while serving the nation. Our prime minister has been in this House for about 12 years, I have only been here for 12 months, yet I have a small piece of advice. There was an election recently and he released a list of how many insults the opposition parties and their leaders had hurled at him, and in that list, he had compiled perhaps 90-99 such insults,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
“So I want to give him a small piece of advice: whatever complaints you have against Nehruji, whatever mistakes you think he made, whatever abuses you want to hurl, whatever insults you want to inflict, make a list of all of those … 999 insults, 9,999 insults, make a list, and then we will fix a time. Just like we debated Vande Mataram for 10 hours today, we will ask the speaker, we will fix a time — 10 hours, 20 hours, 40 hours, however many hours it takes for your complaints to be fully addressed — so that you are satisfied,” she said.
Priyanka Gandhi asserted that people have sent them to Parliament to discuss and solve their problems.
“As they say in English, once and for all, let us close the chapter. Let us close it. The country will hear what the complaints are — what did Indiraji do, what did Rajivji do, what is parivarvaad (dynastic politics), what mistakes did Nehruji make. Listen to this and then it is over. After that, unemployment, inflation, women’s issues — discuss those,” she said.
The Congress leader alleged that the debate on Vande Mataram is being held merely to distract attention because “this government wants to hide the reality of the current situation in this country”.
“How troubled and distressed the youth of this country are today…. Paper leaks keep happening, there is unemployment, inflation has gone up so much — why are we not discussing these in the House?” she questioned.
“Why are we not discussing the manipulation that is happening with reservations? There will be talk about women, big announcements will be made, but why are no concrete steps being taken here to improve their situation?” she asked.
“If you have the courage, talk about why there is unemployment, why exam papers are leaked,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
