A substantive motion is an independent, self-contained proposal submitted for the approval of a legislative house or Assembly, drafted to express a decision or opinion.
New Delhi: The war of words between the BJP and the Opposition, particularly the Congress, on Thursday intensified, with the ruling party MP Nishikant Dubey giving a notice to initiate a "substantive motion" against Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and demanding that his Lok Sabha membership be cancelled and he be debarred from contesting elections for life.
Hitting back, Gandhi asserted that the government could file cases or a privilege motion against him but he would stand strongly with farmers even as he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “anti-farmer” and “selling” the country through the India-US interim trade deal.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha shared a video statement on X in which he made a scathing attack on the government over the India-US interim trade deal. In a post in Hindi on X along with the video, Gandhi said, “FIR is filed, a case is registered, or a privilege motion is brought -- I will fight for the farmers.”
“Any trade deal that takes away the farmers' livelihood or weakens the country's food security is anti-farmer. We will not let the anti-farmer Modi government compromise on the interests of the food providers,” he said.
“Maize, cotton, soya bean and fruit farmers is only the beginning,” he said referring to terms of the interim trade deal with the US. Narendra Modi will open the doors to the entire agriculture market for his friends like Adani, Ambani and for foreign powers. The whole country and the farmers know that Narendra Modi is anti-farmer,” he claimed.
On another front, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra locked horns with parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju a day after he accused Congress MPs of storming Speaker Om Birla’s chamber in Parliament and “threatening” and "abusing” him. She dubbed Rijiju's claim a "lie".
Rubbishing Rijiju's allegation, Vadra said, ""We did not abuse anyone. One or two MPs were agitated, and they expressed it." The Congress MP said, "The Union minister had claimed that I was encouraging them, which is a lie. I was sitting quietly. In the end, I said a few things peacefully to the Speaker."
Dubey, who targeted the Lok Sabha LoP, told a news agency that he had given a notice to initiate a substantive motion against Gandhi. “Not a privilege motion notice. I have given a substantive motion notice wherein I have mentioned how he (Gandhi) visits Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia with the Soros Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the USAID and colludes with anti-India forces,” he said.
A substantive motion is an independent, self-contained proposal submitted for the approval of a legislative house or Assembly, drafted to express a decision or opinion.
The BJP MP claimed that Gandhi had been levelling “serious” charges against the government over the US-India trade deal and from an unpublished book by former Army chief General M.M. Narvane (retd).
"We are not bothered about any motions… If you want to hang us, we are ready for that also," said Congress general secretary (organisation) K.K Venugopal after Dubey gave a notice to initiate a substantive motion against Mr Gandhi.
Lashing out at the government over certain remarks of Gandhi in the House being expunged from the records on Wednesday, the Congress general secretary said, "Questions were asked as to why we took an extreme position to submit a notice for the removal of the Lok Sabha Speaker… The answer to that is we have not been getting justice from the chair.”
When asked about the BJP's actions against Gandhi's remarks in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on the Union Budget, Venugopal said, "Which privilege has Mr Gandhi broken? They removed his membership last time… What happened afterwards was that people ensured his victory with more votes compared to that of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi Ji. We will continue to tell the truth in Parliament."
On Gandhi's remarks being expunged, Venugopal said the government has been “putting pressure” on the chair to “not give a chance to the members of the Opposition to speak”. He said: “Whatever Rahul ji said was completely expunged from the records. But (Union finance minister) Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks were included in the records. This government has double standards... This Parliament is running for the government, not for the Opposition."
