Congress to go on offensive against Governement

After Human Resource and Development Minister (HRD) Smriti Irani’s fiery response in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday to charges against the government on the JNU and Rohith suicide issues, the Congress launched a strong attack on Thursday and Friday on the HRD Minister in the Rajya Sabha, charging her with making reference to documents that are “blasphemous” and insulting to religious figures. 

As Irani tried to readout a pamphlet on celebrating “Mahishasura divas” in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Deputy leader of the Congress in the House Anand Sharma said that the minister cannot bring up “blasphemous” narratives that are baseless and are confined to campuses. 

The Congress protests in Parliament on the issue led to the adjournment of the House without the minister being able to complete her speech.

Referring to the HRD minister’s speech in Parliament, AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “the HRD minister got caught in the web of her own lies in the Rajya Sabha.” 

In a meeting with party leaders on the weekend, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the leaders to fight with BJP and the RSS on the question of nationalism. 

In this context, activists of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Saturday evening protested outside the residence of the Human Resource Development Minister to register their resentment against the blatant lies she spoke in the Parliament on Rohith Vemula’s issue to deliberately mislead the nation.

Addressing the protesters, NSUI president Roji M John said, “We condemn the manner in which Irani twisted the facts related to Rohith Vemula’s case and gave a highly dramatic speech full of lies.” The NSUI president said, “We want to remind the minister that Parliament is not a TV set where she can make such speeches without having a fact-check. By doing so she has demeaned the dignity of the respected institution. We demand that Irani should come out and apologise to the people of this country.”