'Rahul Has Lost Mental Balance': Pralhad Joshi Says 'Bharat Mata' Not Expunged from Cong Leader's Speech

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday debunked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that the words ‘Bharat Mata’ in his Lok Sabha speech were expunged from proceedings, claiming that he lacks understanding and seems to have “lost his mental balance”.

Addressing a presser, Joshi said, “Congress and other opposition parties never thought that we would agree for a discussion on Manipur…Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said we should be sensitive about the issue. I think Rahul Gandhi lost his mental balance, it appears like that…He has not heard the reply. He did not come to the House…It is very unfortunate that the so-called grand old party is behaving so irresponsibly…”

Joshi asserted that only some unparliamentary words and not ‘Bharat Mata’ were expunged from Gandhi’s address during the no-confidence motion debate on Wednesday and accused Opposition parties of creating ruckus and not letting debate on several key bills happen during the session for political reasons.

“The term ‘Bharat Mata’ has not been expunged. What was unparliamentary has been expunged. Unparliamentary words are selected as per a rule book and there is nothing arbitrary about it,” he claimed.

Lok Sabha’s productivity was 45 per cent and Rajya Sabha’s 63 per cent during the session, a large part of which was marred by the opposition’s protest over the Manipur issue.

Joshi said 22 bills were passed by Lok Sabha and 25 by Rajya Sabha, while 23 bills were passed by both Houses. Some bills passed by one House in previous sessions got the nod of another House in this session.

This comes hours after the Gandhi scion held a conference in which he slammed PM Modi for “laughing and cracking jokes” in the Parliament at a time when Manipur faced violence.

During a press conference, Gandhi also criticised Prime Minister Modi for his reply to the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha, saying he devoted just two minutes to Manipur in his over two-hour speech.

“I watched the PM yesterday speaking for two hours laughing, joking, ‘lagaoing naaras’ (raising slogans). The Prime Minister seems to have forgotten that the state of Manipur is on fire and has been on fire for many days,” Gandhi said.

“The Prime Minister sitting in the middle of Parliament was shamelessly laughing…The issue was not Congress or me, the issue was what is happening in Manipur and why it was not being stopped,” he added.

In his over two-hour long speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, PM Modi critised the Opposition for its take on Manipur and said, “we could have discussed Manipur also had they showed interest. The Home Minister gave in writing that we are ready to discuss Manipur.”

He also said that the state and central governments are trying their best to punish the accused and that peace will be restored in the state again.

“I want to assure mothers and daughters of Manipur that this country is with you, this House is with you. I would like to assure the people of Manipur that the state will once again walk on the path of development and we will ensure it,” he said.

(with inputs from PTI)