E-Paper
'I decide what to say': Amit Shah tells Rahul Gandhi in most heated Lok Sabha exchange ever | Watch
Rahul Gandhi called for a debate on his press conferences, saying, “Amit Shah ji, I challenge you to have a debate on my three press conferences.”
Union home minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi locked in one of their fiercest confrontations in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday as the debate on electoral reforms spilled into chaos. The atmosphere turned explosive when Gandhi cut into Shah’s address, saying, “I challenge you to have debate on my press conferences.”
During the proceedings, Rahul Gandhi called for a discussion on his press conferences, saying, “Let us have a debate on my press conferences. Amit Shah ji, I challenge you to have a debate on my three press conferences.” Follow Lok Sabha debate live updates
The BJP leader responded sharply, saying he would neither structure his speech to suit the LoP nor alter the sequence of his remarks at anyone’s insistence.
Shah said, “First of all, I want to make it clear… I have long experience, and I will decide the order of my speech… they should be patient… I will answer each question… but they cannot decide the order of my speech.”
“Amit Shah gave a defensive response, this is a response of being rattled and scared,” Gandhi later hit back.
Watch video here:
This came after Shah responded to Congress leader's allegations of voter list manipulation during his presser, saying the claims were unfounded and had already been clarified by the Election Commission.
Amit Shah responds to Rahul's 'H-bomb' presser
He said that the Leader of Opposition had said “in a press conference on November 5 he had dropped an ‘atomic bomb’ — and in that so-called bomb he claimed that 501 votes were registered at a single house in Haryana.”
Shah said the Election Commission’s explanation made clear there was nothing irregular about the address in question. “The Election Commission has clarified that house number 265 is not a small house but a one-acre ancestral plot where several families live. However, each family has not been given a separate house number, which is why the same house number appears everywhere. And multiple generations of one family live together. This numbering system has been the same since the time a Congress government was elected in Haryana. This is not a fake house.”
Wednesday marks the second day of the Lower House debate on electoral reforms, coming after the Opposition repeatedly pressed for a discussion on SIR, a demand the government had initially resisted.
The standoff ended when both sides agreed to take up electoral reforms after concluding the debate on Vande Mataram.
Both Houses have set aside a total of 10 hours for the electoral reforms discussion.
