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Opp slams Govt: Why announce US trade deal on X… is Parliament inferior?
He said that because of the timing of the announcement, PM Narendra Modi had to be “alert and awake at 11 pm at night to respond to his (US President) teasers”, while Cabinet ministers relied on X to “shower compliments on Donald Trump”.
Opposition MPs protest at Parliament complex against the suspension of eight MPs on Tuesday. PTI
Lashing out at the government over announcing the India-US trade deal on X instead of Parliament, CPI-M Rajya Sabha member John Brittas questioned on Tuesday whether the House had become “inferior to Elon Musk’s X platform”.
During a discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address, Brittas criticised the government for announcing the deal at 9 pm on social media rather than on the floor of Parliament during an ongoing session. “Is this House more important than Elon Musk’s X platform? That’s the question.”
He said that because of the timing of the announcement, PM Narendra Modi had to be “alert and awake at 11 pm at night to respond to his (US President) teasers”, while Cabinet ministers relied on X to “shower compliments on Donald Trump”.
“The healthy convention of this country is that any policy decision during a Parliament session, any important decision, should be announced on the floor of the House, rather than on X platform,” he said.
Referring to US claims that India would stop buying oil from Russia, he said, “We were the leader of the non-aligned nation. We never bowed to anybody.”
On currency depreciation, he said, “When it was Rs 60 (exchange rate), who said that the rupee was in the ICU, the rupee lost its voice, mute like the PM… If the rupee was in the ICU when it was Rs 60, then at Rs 92 it should be in the mortuary or graveyard.”
He also said the last Union Budget revolved around a PM internship programme for which Rs 10,831 crore were allocated, of which only Rs 526 crore or 4% was utilised. “This shows the real picture of your performance. The vast gap between words and deeds is like the Pacific Ocean.”
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Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan expressed concerns that farmers are likely to be hit as the trade deal could open markets to US produce while Swaminathan Commission recommendations were yet to be implemented.
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