'I think, the main issue is that we are being stifled. We are not allowed to speak in Parliament'
Rahul Gandhi. Pic/PTI
New Delhi: Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "tubelight" barb, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he does not behave like a prime minister. He also alleged that the ruckus in the Lok Sabha was "orchestrated" to prevent him from questioning the government. "Normally, a prime minister has a particular status, a prime minister has a particular way of behaving, a particular stature, our prime minister doesn't have these. He does not behave in a prime ministerial way," he told reporters outside Parliament. Gandhi said this when he was asked about Modi's "tubelight" barb at him during his reply to the motion of thanks to the president's address in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. He also said that "we are being stifled and we are not being allowed to speak in Parliament".
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"They have suppressed our voices," Gandhi said. On Friday, there was an uproar in the Lok Sabha over comments made by BJP MP and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan against Gandhi. The House was adjourned for the day at 2 pm. "The orchestrated ruckus in Parliament today was designed to prevent me from questioning the government. The youth of India can clearly see that the PM has no clue about how to tackle the unemployment crisis. "To protect him, the BJP will keep disrupting Parliament, preventing debate," the Congress leader said on Twitter later. Gandhi told reporters that he was seeking to raise an issue of the people of his Lok Sabha constituency Wayanad not getting access to medical facilities in the absence of a medical college. "But I was prevented from doing so," he said. It was Vardhan's comments on Gandhi that led to the ruckus in the Lok Sabha with some Congress MPs, including Manickam Tagore, protesting in the Well of the House. "The BJP obviously does not like me to speak in the House. In a completely unparliamentary manner, the Union health minister raised something that I said outside, which he has no business of doing during the Question Hour. So, we were raising it with the Speaker," the former Congress chief said.
"I think, the main issue is that we are being stifled. We are not allowed to speak in Parliament. The health minister instead of giving an answer to my question, was raising some other issue. Where ever they can suppress our voice, they try to do that," he said. Gandhi denied that Tagore attacked anyone and alleged that he was instead attacked. The Congress leader said people who are going to suffer as a result are the youngsters who are looking for jobs. "Yesterday, the prime minister gave a long speech, I asked him what is happening about jobs and employment. The prime minister talked about Jawaharlal Nehru, he spoke about Pakistan and all sorts of things, the Congress party, but the prime minister is unable to answer what he is doing to give jobs to the youth of the country. "He is unable to give an answer and jobs to the youth, and that is why this drama that you saw today," he said. Gandhi along with Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury later met Speaker Om Birla over the ruckus in the House.
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