Rahul says govt wants to avoid talks on Gulf crisis

New Delhi: Parliament Rahul Gandhi The Modi government wants to avoid discussing the crisis in West Asia as it would raise the question of “how the prime minister was blackmailed,” he said on Monday. His comments suggest that Israel and the United States’ war against Iran are a new point of friction between the opposition and the government and will plague the budget session.The opposition decided to demand a discussion on the war in West Asia, arguing that global developments were a topic it could use to corner the government amid growing perceptions that the BJP was taking sides in the conflict.Rahul said the war was a “paradigm-changing fight” and that coupled with the US trade deal signed by Modi would seriously hurt indian economy. “They don’t want to discuss this issue because it will lead to other problems. It will expose the prime minister’s position, the way he compromised… the way he was blackmailed,” he said, adding, “The prime minister ran away (from parliament) and will not come back. You watch.” Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav (SP), NK Premachandran (RSP), Sandosh Kumar (CPI) and people from TMC, DMK, IUML protested against the “government’s silence on the war”.