Our Gujarat MLAs threatened by cops, offered bribe ahead of RS polls: Cong ‘Transactions worth ~1,500 cr on BHIM app so far’
ATTACK MODE Party leaders storm into the well of the house and raise antigovt slogans, force a brief adjournment in the Rajya Sabha
Opposition Congress on Monday forced a brief adjournment of proceedings in the Rajya Sabha, alleging the Gujarat police abducted and threatened its MLAs in the state in order to influence their votes in the upcoming elections to the Upper House.
Congress members marched to the Well of the House, raising anti-government slogans, which were matched by counter-sloganeering by the Bharatiya Janata Party benches. Amid the pandemonium, deputy chairman PJ Kurien adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes during the Zero Hour soon after it met in the morning.
Raising the issue, Congress’ Madhusudhan Mistry alleged his party’s legislators were being “kidnapped” and offered a bribe of “~10-15 crore” in order to influence their vote in the August 8 elections to send three members from the BJP-ruled western state to the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP has fielded three members, including party president Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA Balwantsinh Rajput for the election. Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser, is seeking a re-election for the fifth time from the state.
The saffron party has rejected the Congress’ charge and countered tongue and cheek whether the rival lawmakers were “purchasable”.
Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Kurien said he was not allowing Mistry’s notice under rule 267 seeking setting aside of the business to take up the issue as the same matter was raised on Friday as well.
Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the Congress with “kidnapping” its own MLAs and lodging them in a holiday resort in Karnataka at a time when the people of Gujarat were facing miseries after flash floods.
“You should be ashamed,” he said, daring the Congress party to debate the matter in the House.
As slogan-shouting Congress members entered the Well, some BJP members moved into the aisles and raised counter slogans. Kurien said he was forced to adjourn the proceedings on Friday as well after members from both the sides came into the Well.
He said he has heard Naqvi say the government was ready for a discussion. “If you want discussion, give separate notice. We will consider it,” he said.
Congress members were unmoved but that did not prevent Kurien from calling members to raise their Zero Hour mentions. “If you have something against the government, why do you obstruct other members,” Kurien said adding that Zero Hour was members’ business and their rights are being obstructed.
The BHIM app, that aims to make payments through mobiles, has logged 2 crore downloads and close to ~1,500 crore worth of transactions have taken place through it, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday.
Responding to a mention made by SP member Jaya Bachchan during the Zero Hour in the House, Prasad also said more than 2 crore people have been trained by common service centres on digital payments.
“The BHIM app has been downloaded by 2 crore people and there has been close to 50 lakh transactions only on the BHIM app worth ~1,500 crore,” the minister said.
Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is an app that allows transactions using Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Bachchan while congratulating the government for its intention to move towards digital and cashless payments, said inadequate infrastructure was hampering digital payments. She said demonetisation was improperly planned and caused “confusion and hardship” to people. She said there were only 15.1 lakh PoS (Point of Sales) machines in the country, while the requirement was of 20 lakh.