Bisheshwar Mishra / AMN /
New Delhi: Contrary to his image of maintaining a distance from other parties leaders in the Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today showed a major change in his style. In Rajya Sabha today PM walked up to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shook hands with him and other Congress members and chatted with them for few minutes. Then he moved with folded hands towards BSP leader Mayawati, exchanged few words with her and her lieutenant Satish Mishra sitting behind her.
This happened few minutes before the House was to begin Friday morning to take up discussion on “Commitment to India’s Constitution as part of the 125th birth anniversary celebration’’ of Dr B R Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution.
The discussion was initiated by Finance Minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley. But what is more interesting is that before the discussion could start, BSP leader seemed to be toast of the debate, as prior to Modi, Jaitley was seen strolling up to Mayawati and engaging with her and Mishra in an animated conversation.
And this was followed by something not seen in the recent past sessions of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi himself mingling freely with members seated in the opposition benches. Modi shook hands with CPI leader D Raja and spoke to JD (U) president Sharad Yadav. But interestingly either he did not see or deliberately ignored SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, who also sits on the same front bench. Yadav had the look that he would be greeted next, but Modi just walked passed him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today also held a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at his residence in New Delhi over tea and discussed the issues related to important bills including GST.
Many Congress and opposition members who walked into the House little later or were sitting behind, were seen looking quizzically at the ongoing. After mingling for a while the PM resumed his seat next to the leader of the opposition Jaitley, just when chairman of Rajya Sabha Mohammad Hamid Ansari entered the House took his seat.
However, this bonhomie didn’t last too long once the discussion started. Jaitley virtually charged the Congress of taking a leaf from Hitler’s strategy to subvert the Constitution from within.
Quoting Dr Ambedkar at the same time Jaitley said measures should be taken to strengthen the Constitution and ensure that democracy is not subverted again. He narrated the sequence of events that took place in Hitler’s regime, suggesting that these were replicated by Indira Gandhi who imposed Emergency in 1975.
“There are worst illustrations in history when Constitutional systems are used to subvert the Constitution… You have the most glaring example in the world when in 1933 in Germany Emergency was declared,” he said. He said Hitler, using the pretext of a threat to “set ablaze the German Parliament”, imposed Emergency, detained opposition to gain majority for amending the Constitution, censured the press and came out with a 25-point economic programme.
“You impose Emergency, detain opposition, amend the Constitution, impose censorship on newspapers and announce a 25-point economic programme. Thereafter you brought a law that no action taken by government was justiciable in court and then Hitler’s immediate adviser Rudolf Hess in his speech ended by a sentence that ‘Adolf Hitler is Germany, Germany is Adolf Hitler’,” he said.
Though he said he was only referring to the events of 1933 in Germany, Jaitley was apparently citing similarities to actions during Indira Gandhi’s regime when it was said ‘Indira is India, India is Indira’.
“What happened in other parts of the world later, Germany never claimed a copyright,” Jaitley added.