Lok Sabha adjourned four times after spat between BJP and Congress over PM Cares Fund

Lok Sabha: MoS Finance Anurag Thakur and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary on the fifth day of Parliament's monsoon session. (Source: YouTube Screengrab/Lok Sabha TV)

Lok Sabha was adjourned four times amid ruckus over remarks made by MoS Finance Anurag Thakur on the Gandhi family and the charitable trusts run by them.

During a discussion on the introduction of a Bill that dealt with certain relaxations given to the PM Cares Fund, Thakur said that the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was established in 1948 by Jawaharlal Nehru to benefit one family. He alleged that the Gandhi family had cheated the nation by establishing various charitable trusts which were used for “personal benefit”.

The Congress objected to the names of Nehru and Sonia Gandhi being taken in this context and protested with sloganeering. Leader of the party in the house Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary retorted with the accusation that the PM Cares Fund received donations from Chinese companies such as Tik Tok.

Due to the protests, which also had participation from the TMC after the treasury benches made some remarks associated with West Bengal, the House was first adjourned for half an hour around 3:50 pm and then again adjourned till 5 pm after it sat for about 10 minutes in between. As it sat at 5 pm, there were protests again and was adjourned till 5.30 pm before it got adjourned till 6 pm.

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought to introduce the Taxation and Other Laws, Relaxation of Certain Provisions Bill, 2020, Congress and TMC members raised objections to its introduction on the ground that it sought to bring PM Cares Fund under the same laws that governed the PMNRF.

To this Thakur said, “Some members have raised questions on PM Cares Fund. …In 1948, the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru ordered the establishment of PM National Relief Fund but it hasn’t been registered yet. How did it get FCRA registration? How did you give it tax exemption when even the Trust is not registered. You made that Trust for just one family, the Gandhi family. This fund (PM Cares) is for the 138 crore people of this country. PMNRF had Sonia Gandhi and Nehru as its members. This should be discussed in detail. The nation must see your real face.”

There were immediate protests from the opposition benches to this who demanded that the names must not go on record and that Thakur must apologise.

Chowdhary said, “Why are Nehru’s and Sonia Gandhi’s names being taken in such context? Is this an (Bill) introduction debate? We did not say anything. Chinese companies have donated in PM Cares Fund. How did Tik Tok pay Rs 500 crore to the fund? How did one after another Chinese firm donate to PM Cares Fund? This should be investigated.”

To this Thakur said, “I don’t agree with Adhir Chowdhury. The names of entire Nehru-Gandhi family should be taken. By fooling the nation you have gained personal benefits by erecting different charitable trusts. We will expose this. Gandhi family has played with the country.”

Meanwhile, there were some remarks from the treasury benches targeting the TMC, which had also opposed the Bill and mentioned PM Cares fund. TMC members such as Kalyan Banerjee too joined the protest shouting loudly and accusing the Speaker of shutting up opposition members but allowing BJP members to say whatever they wanted.

Speaker Om Birla denied the charges and said he always gave everyone an opportunity to speak. He also threatened that if members continued to create ruckus and stood up to speak without being allowed to, he would throw them out of the house as it was interfering with Covid-19 safety protocols.

The opposition, however, did not relent and kept on demanding apology from Thakur.

“Look at our speech. Is there anything unparliamentary in that? Nirmala Sitharaman also spoke nicely. In between comes this boy from Himachal. …They are disrespecting Nehru ji. What kind of things are they saying by taking Sonia Gandhi’s name? It’s a question of the dignity of your chair, sir,” Chowdhary said.

Gaurav Gogoi too stood up in protest and said, “We haven’t come here to be subjected to unparliamentary language. We have been listening to you since the beginning. But the minister must apologise.”

Earlier, Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Chowdhary had opposed the introduction of the Bill.

Tharoor said, “The Bill seeks to amend the CGST Act which will allow the government for extension of time limit for completion of actions under the Act in events such as a pandemic with retrospective effect. This will permit the government to retrospectively validate its failure and delay disbursal to states. The Bill brings the PM cares fund under the same clause that governs the PM National Relief fund. Then what’s the need to institute a new fund? This raises serious questions behind creating a duplicate fund. It has been exempted from the CAG audit without any reason.”

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