The Congress piped down on Wednesday after days of loud protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged protection of industrialist Gautam Adani, the change of approach forced apparently by key INDIA allies distancing themselves from
the demonstrations.

Proceedings in the Lok Sabha had virtually been paralysed for the last four days with the Congress accusing Modi of shielding Adani, who faces US bribery charges, and the BJP retaliating by accusing the Congress of links with foreign forces conspiring to destabilise the country.

However, with the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress staying off the protests and indicating they wanted the House to function, Congress members on Wednesday refrained from attacking Modi or Adani directly during their morning demonstration on Parliament premises.

They displayed placards that said, “Desh ko mat bikne do (Don’t let the country be sold)”. During the past few days, Congress members had been waving placards that said “Modi, Adani bhai bhai” and “Modi, Adani ek hain”.

Several members of the Congress and some other Opposition parties carried a red rose and a paper Tricolour each, seeking to underline their conciliatory approach.

Participating in the protest, leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi rushed to give Rajnath Singh a red rose and a Tricolour as the defence minister arrived at the Parliament building’s gate.

After several days, the Lok Sabha witnessed normal functioning barring two
brief adjournments.

Samajwadi MP Dimple Yadav later expressed happiness at normalcy returning to the House, telling reporters: “We are neither with the Soros issue nor with the Adani issue. We believe that the House should run.”

She was referring to billionaire US philanthropist George Soros — a global champion of liberal causes — whom India’s ruling establishment accuses of plotting to destabilise the country in cahoots with the Congress.

Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee blamed both the BJP and the Congress for the disruption in Parliament and sought to maintain equidistance from both.

“The House is getting adjourned because of the Congress and the BJP. The House will continue only on the choices of the Congress and the BJP and this is not proper,” Banerjee told reporters.

Rahul, who met Speaker Om Birla and requested him to expunge derogatory comments made by a BJP member against him, too stressed before reporters that the Congress wanted Parliament to function.

“I had a meeting with the Speaker and I told him that our party is saying that derogatory comments against me should be expunged. The Speaker said he will examine them,” Rahul told reporters outside Parliament.

“They (the BJP) continue to make all kinds of baseless allegations, but we have decided that we want the House to function…. We want that there should be a debate on the Constitution on December 13.”

Rahul said he had not abandoned the Adani controversy and would continue to raise it.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi wrote to the Speaker saying BJP member Nishikant Dubey’s remarks against Rahul during a Zero Hour intervention on December 5 were “defamatory” and should be examined and expunged.

Gogoi too stressed that the Congress was keen to participate in the functioning of the House after the Speaker’s decision.

Despite the Congress’s conciliatory approach, the Lok Sabha twice witnessed ruckus and adjournments.

The first adjournment came during Zero Hour when Gogoi raised the Manipur unrest, stressing the state faced a humanitarian crisis and demanding a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah in Parliament on the subject.

Gogoi also alleged that the government was invoking Soros to hide its failures in Manipur.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal reacted aggressively, accusing the Congress of working with foreign forces to cause unrest in the country.

“The Congress party is responsible for the internal disturbances in the country, and they have a nexus with foreign forces destabilising the nation,” Goyal told the House, prompting uproar and an adjournment in the afternoon session.

The second adjournment came late in the afternoon when Trinamool MP Banerjee’s “personal attack” on communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia led to loud protests.