New Delhi, April 21 (The Telegraph): BJP MPs are miffed with M. Venkaiah Naidu for being asked to pipe down and not join issue with Rahul Gandhi when he attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha yesterday.
Some of the MPs called on the parliamentary affairs minister this morning and voiced "disappointment" and "anguish" at not being allowed to answer Rahul when the Congress vice-president dubbed the Modi administration " suit-boot ki sarkar (a government of suits and boots)" in an allusion to the monogrammed suit the Prime Minister wore during Barack Obama's January visit.
"It was unfair. Top Congress leaders have called Modiji all sorts of names. We had our answers but the minister checked us," a Maharashtra MP said, referring to Naidu who had asked his up-in-arms colleagues to remain seated and allow Rahul to speak on the land bill.
Government sources said Naidu wanted to maintain "order" and ensure a discussion on an "important" issue touching farmers was not disrupted. "He did not want an impression to go around that the government deliberately allowed disruptions to stall discussions," an official source said.
If fighting the negative perceptions on the land bill was one problem for the Centre, the other was the continuing embarrassment it has faced over Bihar MP and junior Union minister Giriraj Singh's remarks. Today's trouble arose when a news channel reported that Singh was summoned by Modi and ticked off for his racist comments against Sonia Gandhi.
PMO sources denied the report. So did Giriraj, who had to apologise in the House yesterday. "I did not seek time from the Prime Minister today, nor was I summoned," Giriraj told The Telegraph.
