New Delhi: Eight Congress MPs were suspended by the Lok Sabha Speaker on Tuesday after continuing ruckus is the Lok Sabha for the second day running over the refusal to let Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi to quote from an unpublished ‘memoir’ of former army chief MM Naravane.
The MPs suspended were Hibi Eden, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Prashant Padole and Dean Kuriakose after they allegedly threw papers towards the Chair.
The House was also adjourned for the day even as the Congress staged protests outside Parliament.
Rahul, since Monday, has been trying to speak on an unpublished ‘memoir’ by former army chief General M M Naravane. An excerpt of the memoir was published in The Caravan. In this part, Naravane talks of an incident from August 31, 2020, when Chinese tanks approached Indian positions in Ladakh and he sought directions from the defence minister, home minister, external affairs minister, National Security Adviser and Chief of Defence Staff.
After some delay, Gen Naravane was apparently told by defence minister Rajnath Singh to take whatever step he seems fit. The former Army chief writes that he was handed a ‘hot potato’, hinting at “in-decesion” on the part of the political establishment.
The matter was subsequently resolved after Indian tanks moved to the position.
Rahul wanted to use this to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singh. Earlier in the day, he authenticated the copy of the article which cited Naravane’s unpublished ‘memoir’ and said, “This is central to our President’s address. All I am saying is let me make a statement about what happened between China and India and how our PM reacted to it. Why am I being stopped?”
Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was chairing the House asked him to table it and said “we will examine it and get back.”
Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak further, triggering protests from the Congress MPs.
