Lok Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
As BJP member Nishikant Dubey on Thursday (December 12, 2024) attacked the Congress in the Lok Sabha yet again over its alleged links with billionaire investor George Soros, the principal Opposition party questioned how the MP was allowed to raise the issue repeatedly during Zero Hour.
Mr. Dubey’s act of raising the matter during Zero Hour and the resulting protests from Congress had led to two adjournments in the House, which was otherwise running smoothly since the morning.
Also Read | Billionaire investor George Soros is ‘opinionated and dangerous’, says Jaishankar
Congress MP Mohammed Jawed shot off a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a review of the process of allowing members to raise matters under Zero Hour noting that Mr. Dubey had been allowed to raise matters under Zero Hour four to five days in a row.
“These are the pre-planned designs by Narendra Modiji to not run the House,” Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal told the media.
Parliament Winter Session Day 14 highlights
Later in a post on X, he said: “MP Nishikant Dubey is hand-picked to abuse, troll and insult the Congress leadership with utter lies. The PM has given him the special task of destroying Parliamentary norms and making derogatory statements that lower the dignity of our esteemed Lok Sabha.”
“But the question on everyone’s minds is — how does he get the chance to spew such venom everyday on the same subject? How does he win the ballot everyday, when our MPs are denied the chance to speak? This is a matter of grave concern that brings the integrity of our Parliamentary system into question,” he added.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore also wrote a letter to the Speaker on alleged derogatory references made by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday when Congress Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi had raised the issue of violence in Manipur again during the Zero Hour.
On Thursday, the Lok Sabha ran smoothly during Question Hour and trouble erupted only when Mr. Dubey raised the Soros issue again during Zero Hour. He alleged that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is backed by the Soros Foundation along with the United States, and that the OCCRP’s goal was to disrupt the Parliament’s functioning.
Also Read | U.S. State Department should clarify allegations over OCCRP, says BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi
“There is a French organisation named Mediapart that issued a report on the OCCRP, Organized Crime and Corruption Project, and the Soros Foundation. The Soros Foundation and the U.S. are the ones who are helping the OCCRP. OCCRP’s work is, how to bond the Parliament of India. And not allowing Parliament to run,” he said.
The Jharkhand MP claimed that Mr. Soros had previously manipulated the Bank of England in 1991, making a profit to the tune of $6 billion, and is now trying to destabilise the Indian Parliament.
He also questioned the party’s relationship with Salil Shetty of the Open Society Foundation, who had participated in the Bharat Jodo Yatra that was led by Rahul Gandhi.
Published – December 12, 2024 11:12 pm IST
