Gandhi then offered to shake hands with Bittu, saying, “Hello brother, my traitor friend. Don’t worry, you will come back (to Congress).”
Bittu refused the handshake and was heard responding with “Desh ke dushman…” as tensions escalated.
The two leaders exchanged words briefly before moving on, with the incident drawing sharp attention amid the ongoing protest by Congress MPs.
Rahul cited former Army chief MM Naravane’s unpublished “memoir” to claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not fulfil his responsibility during the India-China conflict in 2020 and passed the buck on to Naravane. Gandhi held up Naravane’s unpublished “memoir” and said he would like the youngsters in India to know that this ‘book’ exists despite the government claiming otherwise.
“The Speaker has said this book does not exist, the government has said it does not exist, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh ji has said this book does not exist. Every youngster in India to see this book exists,” Gandhi said.
He said Naravane has written the full account of what happened in Ladakh.
Gandhi said he has been told that he cannot quote from this “memoir” in the Lok Sabha.
The government-Opposition faceoff in the Lok Sabha intensified as eight protesting MPs were suspended for “unruly behaviour” after Gandhi was disallowed for the second day from quoting an article that cited an unpublished “memoir” of Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict.
