New Delhi: Hours before the Lok Sabha took up the no-confidence debate Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Opposition was plagued by mutual distrust.
News agencies reported that Modi told colleagues at a BJP parliamentary party meeting in the morning that the Opposition demonstrated this distrust by bringing the no-confidence motion against the government.
Modi derided the Opposition’s claim that the voting in Rajya Sabha over the Delhi services Bill would be a semi-final ahead of 2024.
The results were out for everyone to see, the Prime Minister said, since the Bill cleared the Rajya Sabha test Monday with 131 votes in favour and 104 opposed to it.
Modi also said “people who speak of social justice harmed it the most with dynastic, appeasement, and corrupt politics”.
The Opposition has filed the no-confidence motion as a “last resort” to force a thorough discussion in the ongoing unrest going on in Manipur, and a reply from the Prime Minister.
Manipur has dominated the Monsoon Session of Parliament since it opened on 20 July, with the Opposition adamant on a detailed discussion and a “comprehensive statement” from Narendra Modi.
The government held out and offered a shorter-duration discussion with an address by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Manipur has seen terrible ethnic clashes between the hill tribes and the valley-based Meiteis since 3 May over the latter’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status that reserves economic benefits for the poorer Kukis.
A delegation of the Opposition bloc INDIA visited the strife-torn state two weeks ago and submitted a memorandum to Governor Anusuiya Uikey where they blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “silence” as his “brazen indifference” to the state.