PM hiding behind Speaker, claim of plan to hurt him is a ‘lie’: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “hiding behind” Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and dismissed as an “absolute lie” the claim that there were plans by opposition MPs to harm the prime minister inside Parliament.

Her remarks came a day after Speaker Birla told the Lok Sabha that he had advised Modi not to come to the House to deliver his address following what he described as “concrete information” suggesting that some Congress MPs could carry out an “unexpected act” by reaching the spot where the prime minister sits.

Birla had also criticised the conduct of certain opposition members, saying their behaviour in his office on Wednesday was inappropriate and amounted to a “black spot”.

Speaking to reporters in the Parliament House complex, Priyanka Gandhi alleged that the government was making the Speaker issue such statements to cover up the prime minister’s absence from the House.

“It is an absolute lie. There is no question of anybody raising hands on the prime minister, trying to hurt him or any such thing. There was no such plan,” she said.

She claimed that the Speaker’s statement was being used as a shield by the government. “The prime minister is hiding behind the Speaker. They are making the Speaker say all this because yesterday he did not have the guts to come to the House,” the Congress MP alleged.

Referring to protests by opposition members, Priyanka Gandhi said that if ruling party MPs were allowed to “quote books and talk nonsense”, the opposition was bound to protest.

“…because three women were standing before his bench, what nonsense is this,” she said, expressing anger over suggestions that opposition members posed a threat to the prime minister.

She also urged the media to question the government over why Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address.

“Ask the prime minister, Home Minister Amit Shah and the government why the Leader of Opposition was not allowed to speak. Have they any basis to stop him from quoting a public source?” she asked.

The controversy comes amid repeated disruptions in the Lok Sabha this week, following the Speaker’s decision to disallow Rahul Gandhi from quoting an article citing an unpublished memoir of former Army chief M.M. Naravane on the 2020 India-China border standoff.