Tuesday's parliamentary discussion on the motion of thanks in the 16th Lok Sabha following President Pranab Mukherjee's address in a joint sitting on Monday turned out to be a mud-slinging match, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajiv Pratap Rudy slamming the Congress for its failures, even calling it a "regional party".
President Mukherjee had laid out the roadmap of the Modi-led government in the joint-sitting on Monday. However, Rudy seemed to digress from the debate and launched an attack on the United Progressive Alliance instead, which evoked strong reactions from party members, compelling Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu to step in.
Chiding the Congress for its ignominious loss in the general elections, in which it managed to win only 44 seats, Rudy said that "The Congress has just 44 seats, it has been reduced to a regional party. It is not entitled to the post of Leader of the Opposition," reported NDTV.
Rudy also did not spare other parties such as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, stating that "BJP had taught them a lesson".
The outgoing UPA government received a drubbing, with the BJP member slamming it for the power crisis, lack of potable water and the urban-rural divide among other issues.
He, however, ensured that the Modi government would take into account all views of members of Parliament, and went on to heap praises on the prime minister, calling him "big-hearted".
The Congress also upped its ante during the debate, and virtually trashed the government's agenda calling it a repackaged work of the UPA. "Nothing new has been said...we need to put the record straight. Modi only repackages what is already done...All these things have been repackaged in the name of Modi," PTI quoted Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
Kharge went on to state that BJP's campaigning skills will not help it in running the government and asked the Modi-government to implement its promises without "arrogance".
