Congress MPs Fly Paper Planes In Parliament During Jaitley's Counter On Rafale Debate

Throwing paper planes is something you would expect only children to do for amusement, but our senior opposition leaders recently did the same in the parliament. On January 3, the Parliament was adjourned multiple times as the opposition protested over Rafale deal by waving placards and flying paper planes when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s was countering Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s allegations over the issue.

#WATCH Moment when Congress MPs threw paper planes towards FM Arun Jaitley while he was speaking during #Rafaledeal debate in Lok Sabha (Source:LS TV) pic.twitter.com/4LuuBIUSPU

— ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2019

On Wednesday, the parliament got adjourned at 5 PM, following the suspension of 26 AIADMK leaders. The leaders were among the many who were protesting in the well of the house. The AIADMK leaders were protesting against a Cauvery water project in Karnataka, as reported by The Indian Express.

During the session, the BJP leader and union minister Jaitley raised several questions against “the family”. He attacked Congress over issues like National Herald, Bofors and AgustaWestland.

This led Congress MPs to protest, who gathered in the well and shouted slogans of “Chowkidar Chor Hai”. Meanwhile, the BJP members also raised slogans of “Maa, Beta Chor Hain”.

Some of the Congress members including Sushmita Dev, Rajeev Satav, Ranjeet Ranjan and Gurjeet Singh Aujla, were seen hurling paper planes in the air while Mr Jaitley was giving a counter to the Congress’s Rafale deal issue. In the video on the LSTV, Congress leader Sushmita Dev is seen flinging paper plane while she was talking to Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan pointing out at Congress leaders Dev and Satav said, “Hawai jahaj bachpan mein udae nahi kya? Bachche ho kya? (Haven’t you floated paper planes in your childhood? Are you still children?).” She also pulled the opposition saying that the Congress had demanded a discussion over the issue and was now disrupting the House.

When the opposition continued the protest, Jaitley said, “I think these paper planes are being floated in the memory of Eurofighter(Rafale’s competitor in the deal).” The house was then adjourned by the speaker. However, the Congress continued to raise slogans.

The BJP raised the slogans too

Earlier, the Congress president Rahul Gandhi had attacked the PM Modi. He said that the PM in “a staged interview” did not answer the fundamental questions on Rafale issues.

While he was raising the questions, there was a massive disruption from the treasury benches. When Rahul Gandhi tried to play an audio tape of a Goa minister in which the minister is reportedly claiming that Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had said during a Cabinet meeting that the Rafale files were at his home.

The Speaker and the BJP member Mahajan did not allow him to play the audio after protests from the treasury benches. When Rahul tried to read the transcript, his microphone was switched off.

The Logical Indian take

Our parliament sessions are a disaster filled with childish name-calling, disturbances and failures. What we also know is that the Speaker is empowered by the Constitution to suspend MPs. And what we all want is for our politicians to stop being irresponsible and debate crucial legislation. Flying paper planes and name calling each other show the immaturity of our political representatives. The Logical Indian hopes the parliamentarians would think about the taxpayers’ money that is being wasted on them and on conducting these sessions.

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