Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh cross swords in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: The debate on the motion of thanks to the presidential address in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday saw BJP member Jyotiraditya Scindia slamming his former party, the Congress, but was later at the receiving end when his turf rival Digvijaya Singh and Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien took jibes at him.

Scindia was all praise for the government’s measures to fight Covid-19. He said there was new optimism and energy due to the high recovery rate. He criticised Congress for questioning the measures taken by the government. He cited a letter of UPA’s agriculture minister Sharad Pawar which said participation of the private sector in agriculture was essential and there was a need to amend the APMC Act. He read out the Congress 2019 election manifesto which said UPA would repeal the Essential Commodities Act. “You will have to change your habit of shifting stands. For how long will you play with the country’s future?

When it was Digvijaya Singh’s turn to speak next, he said, Scindia “defended the NDA in the same spirit he used to defend the UPA earlier.” Singh slammed the Modi government for demonetisation, for failing to keep its promise of repatriating black money, jailing leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, ‘losing people’s trust’, by bringing in CAA and NRC, and imposing a sudden lockdown. The lockdown was delayed as Modi was busy organising ‘Namaste Trump’. He alleged the NDA government has turned every crisis into an opportunity to indulge in corruption. “There has been corruption in buying PPE kits. PMCares Fund was created and kept out of purview of RTI.”

O’Brien referred to Scindia as a “newbie” in BJP. He said 194 farmers at Delhi’s borders had died and asked his party colleagues to stand up to observe a minute’s silence as a mark of respect. Almost the entire Opposition stood up immediately. Opposition speakers reiterated their demand for repeal of the three farm laws.





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