BJP Demands Congress' Apology on MP's 'Separate Country' Remark As Opposition Walks Out Over Jharkhand

New Delhi: Opposition members of the INDIA alliance staged a walkout in both houses of Parliament during the first half of the session on Friday (February 2) over the delay in government formation in Jharkhand as Treasury benches led the charge against the Congress by demanding an apology for its Lok Sabha MP D.K. Suresh’s remark on a separate country for South India.

In the Rajya Sabha, leader of the house Piyush Goyal raised Suresh’s statement from Thursday in which he critcised the Union government on Thursday and said that the people of South India might have to demand a separate country if “the injustice of not providing the rightful share of taxes (to the southern states) continued”.

"Does the unity of the country matter to the Congress? Does it want to divide the country into the north and south? I demand an explanation from the Congress party. I condemn the Congress party’s thinking and demand an apology from the party," said Goyal.

Leader of opposition in the house and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that Suresh is not a member of the Rajya Sabha.

“Second, I saw on television that he said that he has not made such a statement. But if he has said so, let the Privileges Committee investigate him. Third, if anyone talks about breaking the country we will never tolerate it whether they are from our party or anyone else’s. Whether anyone says or not, I am saying – I, Mallikarjun Kharge, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir this country is one. This is the reason Indira Gandhi gave her life, and so did Rajiv Gandhi. Will such a party ever talk about breaking this country? But what has not been said in this house should not be repeated here,” he said.

Kharge then raised the issue of government formation in Jharkhand and alleged that the Constitution is being destroyed, by not allowing the new Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren (who took oath on Friday noon) to form the government immediately following the arrest of former chief minister Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged land scam case.

"In Jharkhand an issue has come up. The chief minister resigned and immediately named his successor and gave a list of his supporters including nearly 43 signatures and seven people were outside. He (governor CP Radhakrishnan) did not make any arrangement for that. We have been in politics and so have you. Usually what happens immediately is that until an alternate arrangement is made, he is continued and you call the leader and ask him to take on a vote of confidence. But in this case the governor has given 10 days time for the vote of confidence and today he will take oath at 12.30pm. See how the Constitution is being destroyed,” he said.

Pointing to Bihar, where chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday ended the alliance with RJD and formed the JDU-BJP government, and took oath as the chief minister again on the same day, Kharge asked why the government formation is being delayed in Jharkhand.

“If Nitish Kumar can take oath in minutes in Bihar and he can become chief minister again, why is this happening in Jharkhand? If resignation, acceptance of letters of support and swearing-in can happen in 12 hours in Bihar, why not in Jharkhand? This is shameful. This is destroying the Constitution,” he said.

Goyal then said that he was surprised that the Congress was defending the Jharkhand chief minister whose hand in a scam has been exposed.

"The way such a big corruption scam has been exposed in Jharkhand in which the chief minister has done a ghotala (scam) in connection with land, I am surprised that the Congress is still defending him. The Congress is not saying anything against corruption and this shows that corruption is in the Congress' DNA. The conduct of the governor cannot be discussed in this house," he said.

INDIA alliance members then staged a walkout in protest.

BRS MP K. Keshava Rao then stood up and said that he had met Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar on Friday morning prior to the session starting and enquired about the notification that stated that Soren wanted to continue as chief minister till an alternative arrangement is made.

"The Constitution says that there has to be a government and the government has to be headed by a chief minister. Whether the chief minister is this man or that man, we are not bothered-whether Nitish goes in 5 minutes or ten minutes. There was no need for them to walkout if you could tell us that there was a notification, there was a note that the particular chief minister who had resigned wants to continue till the next arrangement is made," he said.

Dhankar said that he did not say that he has the notification and only said that he will look into whether it was there.

"If it is not there then my point remains that this country has to run through a Constitution," said Rao.

Meanwhile the Treasury benches again attempted to deflect the issue by bringing up Suresh’s statement.

"When there is the conduct of a member of the other house talking about breaking the country, we are being told that you cannot take it up on technical grounds. But we are happily discussing the conduct of a governor who knows his position. And the walkout is in favour of corruption," said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"The entire opposition has walked out in favour of corruption rather than saying why they want to walkout. We cannot speak about the member of the other house talking about breaking the country, but here they are questioning the functioning of the governor. This kind of conduct against a constitutional authority by a party who has been in power for 45-50 years is despicable."

The questioning of the governor's conduct particularly when it is on the issue of corruption by the Congress is astonishing," she said.

In the Lok Sabha, opposition MPs also staged a brief walkout over the Jharkhand issue, with the Treasury Benches led the charge against the Congress over Suresh’s statement.

In the Lok Sabha the charge was led by Union Parliamentary Affairs minister Pralhad Joshi, who said that Suresh had made the excuse of taxation and spoke about dividing the country.

"I condemn his statement. Demanding the division of the Congress has been the tradition of the Congress. The party should explain its stand and aplogise to the nation for insulting the Constitution," he said.

He also asked for the matter to be sent to the Ethics Committee and demanded the Congress to act on Suresh and demanded an apology from Sonia Gandhi.

The opposition then staged a brief walkout ahead of the discussion on the motion of thanks on the President’s speech.

In a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) TMC MP Derek O’Brien stated that the TMC had walked out of both houses over the “brazen misuse of agencies to undermine elected representatives.”

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