- Thursday, February 27, 2025
The no-confidence motion was initiated a day after the Indian National Congress leader was reinstated as the parliamentarian after the top court stayed his conviction.
By: Shubham Ghosh
RAHUL Gandhi, a major opposition leader of Indian politics who returned to the country’s parliament on Monday (7) after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case for a remark on the ‘Modi’ surname, was unlikely to address the parliament on Tuesday (8) as the house debated a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government over the situation in the northeastern state of Manipur.
The 53-year-old leader, who faced a four-month long disqualification as the member of parliament following his conviction by a lower court in the western state of Gujarat, was supposed to initiate the debate on the no-trust vote but his party — the Indian National Congress — later decided to keep his speech on hold as neither prime minister Modi not home minister Amit Shah was present in the parliament.
Gaurav Gogoi, a parliamentarian from the north-eastern state of Assam, initiated the motion.
According to sources in the Congress, the party was set to publish the timing of Gandhi’s speech three hours ahead of it, India Today reported.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not spare the opportunity to target Gandhi and the Congress over the delay in his address.
Parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey mocked the senior Congress leader saying he might have woken up late.
“Maybe Rahul Gandhi wasn’t ready today or maybe he woke up late. Gaurav Gogoi spoke well. I am a victim of the turbulent times of Manipur. My uncle suffered there and was injured,” Dubey said, according to an Indian Today report.
Gogoi, while initiating the debate in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the parliament earlier in the day, said the opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) was forced to initiate the motion against the government to shatter Modi’s “vow of silence” on the violence-hit northeastern state where more than 180 people have been killed so far while thousands have been rendered homeless.
The 40-year-old MP alleged that a government which talks about “one India has created two Manipurs — one living in hills and the other in the valley”.
While Modi did not speak on the ethnic violence that started in Manipur on May 2, he spoke out last month after a video showing two women from the Kuki-Zo tribal community paraded naked and sexually assaulted by a mob in Manipur went viral on social media, causing massive outrage across the country and also earning condemnation from abroad. He assured strict action over the incident.
