Speaker Om Birla pulls up Revanth Reddy
Om Birla skips Lok Sabha, expresses displeasure over the conduct of the Opposition and treasury benches alike; can't direct PM to be present in House: Dhankhar on Oppn demand for Modi's statement on Manipur
New Delhi: Congress MP and TPCC president A Revanth Reddy was pulled up by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla when Revanth made a reference to his own caste while asking the question and also quoted Modi's statement. The Speaker cautioned him and told him to ask a proper question. The Speaker said that nobody in the House comes based on caste or religion, rather people select their representatives as per democratic norms. He warned that he would be forced to act against anyone who uses such terms in the House.
Birla also took serious exception to the Congress member asking him not to "interrupt" him when he was asking a question. Birla asked the Congress leader in the House, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, to make his party members understand that they should never make such comments about the Speaker. "You are the Leader of the House. Make members understand that they should never comment on the Speaker in the future 'that you (Speaker) cannot interrupt'. Did you understand what I said?" Birla said.
Earlier, the House witnessed a bitter war of words between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Congress member A Revanth Reddy in the Lok Sabha on Monday over rupee depreciation and the overall state of the economy. Reddy, while asking a question on depreciation of rupee, referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's old statement on rupee's fall, which he had made when he was Gujarat Chief Minister. Reddy said, when the rupee was at 66 against the dollar, it was stated that it had gone to the ICU. So now when the rupee is at 83.20, it seems like it is heading towards the mortuary. Responding to this, Sitharaman said that "some people in Parliament are jealous of the country's growing economy".
Attacking the Congress MP for bringing up Modi's old statement, the Finance Minister said that if the member remembers that statement, then he must also refer to the economic parameters of those times, "when the entire economy was in ICU".
"Today, despite the pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, our economy is the fastest-growing economy. This is a matter of pride. But they are making fun of it," she said.