New Delhi: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kieron Rijiju A video of the February 4 Lok Sabha proceedings was released on Tuesday, alleging that Congress MPs created a situation to force the Prime Minister to Narendra Modi skipping his scheduled responses to the president’s remarks.Rijiju shared the video on “Congress is proud of the most degrading behavior of its MPs! If we had not stopped all the BJP MPs and allowed women MPs to confront Congress MPs, it would have resulted in very ugly scenes,” Rijiju wrote on X.
https://twitter.com/KirenRijiju/status/2021082523649073377?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
He also claimed that the BJP MPs must be restrained to avoid confrontation in the House.“We have to control our BJP NDA MPs. The BJP women MPs were very angry at such behavior by the Congress MPs. We stopped our MPs from getting into a physical altercation. The MPs then went to the Speaker’s chamber to threaten the Speaker. The BJP women MPs have lodged a complaint. Let us see how the Speaker takes action and what steps he will take,” Rijiju said.The minister also retweeted another video shared by the Congress, which showed Speaker Om Birla saying that he had asked the Prime Minister not to attend the House after receiving suggestions that some opposition MPs might approach his seat and cause an “unprecedented incident”.“We attach great importance to protecting the dignity and sanctity of Parliament,” Rigiju added.The controversy dates back to February 4, when Prime Minister Modi was scheduled to reply to the motion of thanks for the President’s speech. However, the speech was canceled after Speaker Bella said he had received “concrete information” that some MPs might try to disrupt the proceedings.On Monday, the congresswomen wrote to Birla, strongly rejecting what they called “serious allegations” that they threatened or tried to obstruct the prime minister in the House of Representatives.Congress leaders denied the claims, saying the Prime Minister was avoiding the House because he was “too scared to speak”.The issue escalated further on Tuesday when a women BJP MP wrote to the Speaker supporting Birla and accusing opposition members of unruly behavior. In the letter, the BJP MP claimed that Congress women MPs entered the House, threw documents at the Chairman and then surrounded the Prime Minister’s seat.They urged Bella to take the “strongest possible action” against those involved.The BJP’s letter was a rebuttal to a letter from Congress members who accused the Speaker of making “false, baseless and defamatory” claims under pressure from the ruling party.Meanwhile, the opposition leader is planning to file a notice seeking a solution to remove the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.