No Ethics, No Respect: Kiren Rijiju Slams Congress After Parliament Walkout

The Opposition Congress "ran away" from the Rajya Sabha today because after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address yesterday, they could not face Home Minister Amit Shah, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters this evening - shortly after the 34-hour discussion on Operation Sindoor spread over three days, concluded. 

"It shows that they do not have any faith in the system. They don't understand, they don't value the ethics of the parliamentary system and no respect," he added.  

Earlier today, as Amit Shah got up to reply on the discussion, the Opposition had walked out, protesting against the absence of PM Modi's absence in the House.

The Opposition, he said, got more than its allotted time to place their arguments. But despite that, the Congress had orchestrated the walkout because they could not face the reply of Amit Shah, he said.

"Because yesterday, the Prime Minister had demolished the false propaganda of the Congress-Left ecosystem. And today, when the home minister came, they were unable to face the situation and they ran away," Mr Rijiju said. 

Read: Questions, Prompt Counters: Rahul Gandhi, PM Face Off At Op Sindoor Debate

It was "unfortunate" that they could not listen to Mr Shah's response, which "reached out to every Indian".

"And these opposition parties they had a pathetic reply. I must say as a Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, that when you seek debate and discussion, when you question you must be prepared to listen to the answer. 

Asked about the Opposition's demand for a reply from the Prime Minister in the Upper House as well, Mr Rijiju said the Opposition "cannot dictate who will reply and who won't".

"It is a matter of collective responsibility," the minister said, declaring that in such situations the Prime Minister or any of his cabinet ministers can reply.

"But they played a game, made an excuse and ran off.  They just needed an excuse. They were unable to listen and they got exposed... The PM gave a full reply. The EM (foreign minister S Jaishankar) responded. Despite such clear replies if they are still raising questions then they have either plugged their ears or they cannot listen. How much more clearly can anyone explain?" Mr Rijiju said. 

The special discussion on Operation Sindoor had ended in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday evening, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ripped into the party, giving a point-by-point rebuttal to Rahul Gandhi and ripping into the Congress. 

During today's discussion in Rajya Sabha, the foreign minister, exasperated, said, "...Main unko kehna chahta hoon, woh kaan kholke sun le. 22 April se 16 June tak, ek bhi phone call President Trump aur Prime Minister Modi ke beech mein nahi hua. (I want to tell them to listen carefully: from April 22 to June 16, not a single phone call took place between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi)".

The Congress had accused the government not only of lacking the political will to take strong action against Pakistan but also of tying the hands of the armed forces and evading accountability.