Indian Parliament in Prolonged Uproar; Now Prime Minister Modi Targets Congress as Opposition Walks Out of Rajya Sabha
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday to mount a broad political attack on the Congress, the Nehru-Gandhi family and other opposition parties, as opposition members raised slogans and later walked out.
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| Representational Image of PM NaMo; via:NationPress |
In a nearly 100-minute speech delivered amid sloganeering, Modi accused the Congress leadership of habitual wrongdoing and made a pointed reference to Mahatma Gandhi’s surname, saying, “For some people, stealing is a family profession. What’s shocking is that those habitual thieves have also stolen surname of a Gujarati, Mahatma Gandhi.”
He followed with a separate jibe framed around “startup culture,” claiming the Congress “never promoted startup culture” and adding, “They cannot even lift the startup of their own house.”
Modi also trained his remarks on Rahul Gandhi, the Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, invoking the term “Yuvraj” while condemning Gandhi’s earlier “traitor” remark directed at Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu.
“What happened yesterday, the ‘Yuvraj’ of Congress who has ‘shaatir dimag’, called an MP of this House ‘traitor’. His arrogance is at its peak,” Modi said. He alleged the slur had been selectively aimed at a Sikh MP, and argued that it amounted to an insult to the Sikh community.
“He did not call anyone else who has left the Congress a traitor. But he called the MP a traitor, because he is a Sikh. This was an insult to the Sikhs, an insult to the Gurus. This was an expression of the hatred for Sikhs that is filled in the Congress,” Modi said, adding, “He is a member of a family who sacrificed themselves for the country. Just because he changed his political ideology, he became a traitor? This is not a small word. How can the country tolerate a citizen being called a traitor?”
The Prime Minister also framed repeated disruptions in Parliament as an affront to the President and to constitutional offices, saying the disorder was “not only an insult to the President, a poor tribal woman but also to the highest constitutional office and the Constitution of India itself,” according to the account provided.
His comments came as opposition leaders argued they were being denied speaking time and walked out from the Rajya Sabha after raising slogans that “the leaders of opposition in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were not being allowed to speak,” leaving Modi to complete his reply without further interruptions.
Beyond the Congress, Modi accused Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress of protecting “ghuspaithiyas” (infiltrators) in West Bengal, alleging they were taking away jobs and rights of the youth and grabbing tribal land.
He also linked the allegation to court proceedings, saying that even developed countries remove illegal infiltrators, while in India “pressure is exerted on the courts to save infiltrators,” and claimed such dynamics endangered livelihoods, tribal land and the safety of “sons and daughters.”
The criticism came as Banerjee herself has been described as appearing in the Supreme Court to argue in an ongoing case connected to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the State, in an escalation of the political and legal contest described in the material you provided.
The Prime Minister’s reply also sought to contrast his government’s governance model with that of the opposition, saying he is abused daily because opponents “cannot accept how a poor man like him has risen to the post of Prime Minister,” while alleging that the Congress’s first family believes the office belongs to a “shahi parivar.”
He said the opposition treats citizens as a “problem,” whereas his government views people as the country’s strength and the solution to challenges.
In the same address, Modi cited economic and diplomatic markers as evidence of momentum, pointing to what he described as “high growth and low inflation” and reiterating that India is on track to become the world’s third-largest economy.
He also referred to recent trade agreements with the European Union and the United States, saying they had boosted global confidence in India’s stability. In remarks attributed to him, Modi described India as signing “future-ready trade deals” and said the country is now on a “Reform Express,” presenting the trade diplomacy as aligned with the government’s longer-term goal of “Viksit Bharat 2047.”
The Congress, for its part, rejected Modi’s framing and attacked the tone and substance of his speech. Jairam Ramesh, the Congress leader, described the address on X as “another election rally speech” and alleged it was “overflowing with abuses and assaults, distortions and dramatics, innuendos and insults,” while accusing the Prime Minister of delivering “blatant and brazen lies,” as quoted in the material provided.
The Rajya Sabha exchange unfolded against a wider backdrop of disruption across Parliament during the Budget Session, with the opposition maintaining that the leadership of opposition was being constrained and the government insisting that rules and decorum must be followed.
With positions hardening on both sides, Thursday’s reply in the Upper House became a fresh flashpoint in a week dominated by procedural confrontations, competing accusations of disrespect to institutions, and an increasingly personal political battle at the top of India’s parliamentary order.