M Venkaiah Naidu’s dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi forced two adjournments in the Lok Sabha today as a united Opposition backed Congress President Sonia Gandhi and asked for an apology from the Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
Attacked for ridiculing Rahul’s decision to take time off from Parliament’s budget session to ‘introspect’ his party’s recent rout in the Delhi Assembly elections, Naidu said he had not meant to “hurt anyone” and that it was a misunderstanding that Congress should bury.
"Self-introspect if you can do it here and if you can't, then go somewhere far and do it," NDTV quoted Naidu as saying yesterday during a discussion in the Lok Sabha.
An angry Opposition raised slogans in Parliament and asked Naidu to withdraw his statement, the report said.
"I didn't say anything unparliamentary. Some friends told me they were hurt. I have one weakness, I speak facts, but no one should be offended," the NDTV report quoted Naidu as saying. But his voice was drowned by angry sloganeering.
"You (Congress) have got insulted while (Bhagwant) Mann has earned kudos," Naidu said yesterday while intervening in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address. Striking an introspective note, he said BJP also will have to look within and learn lessons from the defeat.
"We need to examine why, after winning in all the seven states, did we lose in Delhi."
In the 70-member Delhi assembly, AAP tornado flattened rival parties bagging 67 seats and just 3 for BJP and none for Congress. (With inputs from agencies)