The opposition staged a walkout during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in the Lok Sabha today to protest against his “obstinate refusal” to address the reasons behind the no-confidence motion.
The walkout prompted the PM to say, "They don't have patience."
Nearly one-and-a-half hours into his speech - after pointed attacks at the INDIA alliance, the Congress and party leader Rahul Gandhi - the Prime Minister had been criticising the new grouping over its approach to the economy, when members of the coalition walked out.
With Mr Gandhi at the forefront, the MPs walked out of the Lok Sabha, chanting slogans and waving placards.
Even as the MPs were leaving, PM Modi said, “Those who don't believe in democracy are always ready to speak, but don't have the patience to listen. Abuse and leave. Litter and leave. Spread lies and leave. This is their game. This country cannot expect much from them.”
"If they had agreed to the Home Minister's proposal for a discussion on Manipur, we could have spoken on that issue alone. We could have discussed every aspect and they would have got the opportunity to say a lot of things. But they had no interest in a discussion. When Amit Shah spoke about the issue at length yesterday, the country was amazed that they can spread lies to this extent," he added.
PM Modi pointed out that since a no-confidence proposal had been moved by the opposition, it was the responsibility of the treasury benches to speak about the confidence that the country had in the ruling coalition.
Attacking the PM and listing out the reasons for the walkout, Congress General Secretary and MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "Here's my colleague @GauravGogoiAsm who moved the No Confidence Motion explaining why INDIA parties walked out of the Lok Sabha after listening for more than 70 minutes to the PM's election sloganeering, abuse of INDIA and obstinate refusal to address the reasons behind the no-confidence motion, especially Manipur."
Congress MP and the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, said one of the reasons the no-confidence motion had been moved was to get the Prime Minister to break his maun vrat (vow of silence) on Manipur.
"That objective was successful. After so many difficulties, the country saw the Prime Minister speaking in Parliament today. If the INDIA alliance had not moved the motion, the PM would probably have kept giving speeches in parliaments around the world and would have probably forgotten our House," Mr Gogoi said.
"The main reason behind moving the motion was to ensure Manipur gets justice. The PM is running from his responsibilities. We had asked him three questions: Why he has been so adamant on not visiting the state; why the chief minister has not been sacked; and why he had not spoken on the violence for over 80 days. The discussion has been going on for two hours, but we could not see justice for Manipur," he added.
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