The Congress party has decided file a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over ‘encouraging’ Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anurag Thakur’s comments about Rahul Gandhi’s caste in Lok Sabha on July 30.
While speaking on Budget 2023 in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Thakur, the Hamiprpur MP, got into a heated exchange with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, taking a jibe at Gandhi’s caste.
“The one whose caste is not known is talking about the census,” Thakur said. The remarks led to an uproar from the opposition and a renewed call to consider the caste census bill.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the video of Anurag Thakur’s speech, calling it a ‘must hear’.
The Congress party has thus decided to moving a privilege motion complaint against Prime Minister, the party said on July 31.
Privilege Motion refers to a formal process through which the Parliament or State Legislatures can deal with instances of breach of parliamentary privileges by individuals or authorities.
Terming Thakur’s comments ‘highly abusive and unconstitutional tirade’, the Congress also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of encouraging a ‘serious breach of parliamentary privilege’ by sharing his Lok Sabha speech on X.
Tagging Modi’s post on X, Ramesh said, “This speech that the non-biological Prime Minister calls a ‘must hear’ is a highly abusive and unconstitutional tirade – and by sharing it, he has encouraged a serious breach of Parliamentary privilege.”
Rahul Gandhi accused Thakur of insulting and abusing him during the debate but asserted that he would not seek any apology from the former Union minister. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also came down heavily on Thakur’s apparent questioning of Gandhi’s caste in the Lok Sabha.
“A socio-economic caste census is the demand of 80 per cent of the people of this country. Today, it was said in Parliament that those whose caste is not known talk about a caste census,” she said in a post in Hindi on X on Tuesday.