New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday began his speech on the first day of the special session with a poem and advised the government that “if it cannot do anything then leave the chair”, and also took a jibe, saying that the Centre was trying to scare a strong opposition with the ED to weaken it.
Kharge, who is also the Congress president, in his opening note in the Rajya Sabha said, “If you want to change then change the situation now. What happens by changing names like this? If you want to give employment to the youth what happens by making everyone unemployed? Try expanding your heart a little, what happens when you kill people? If you can’t do anything, leave your chair. What happens if you scare each other? You are proud of your rule, what happens by bullying people?”
Chairman Dhankhar responded with the number of disruptions that took place in the Rajya Sabha during different sessions and objected to the Opposition’s ‘disrespecting’ the decision of the Chair.
With his poem, Kharge indirectly took a jibe at the government accusing it of focusing on weakening the “strong” Opposition through central agencies like CBI and ED.
He said that first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru believed in strong opposition. Nehru had even said that if there is no strong opposition then there is a serious flaw in the system.
“Now when there is a strong opposition then they want to make it weak with the ED and the CBI and then put them in their washing machine to clean it,” Kharge said.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge said that now the Prime Minister comes and goes. “Today, Manipur is burning and till date the people are being killed, violence is happening. And when so many things are happening then also he hardly issues any statement.