to the most respected finance minister. i have a doubt. please find time to answer me. you say that the venue for a debate is the parliament. you say that my home minister, amit shah has offered a special session to debate. you say that if rahul gandhi - the leader of opposition, wants to debate my prime minister, he should come to the parliament. ma'am, let's start by pointing out some facts. jul 20 - the parliament session opens. narendra modi, the ever so hon'ble prime minister - addresses the media - outside the parliament. he asks for a fact-based debate. jul 24 - Amit Shah's National Honour Bill is introduced in Rajya Sabha, by Nityanand Rai, who is MoS for home affairs. Jairam Ramesh asks "Where is the Cabinet Minister". This is present in the RS Transcript. jul 29 - Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition - asks "why is the Home Minister not here today?". This is also present in the LS Transcript. jul 30 - Rahul Gandhi asks "why Shah is so scared of coming to Parliament" aug 4 - Amit Shah, is seen in the parliamentary complex. at an NDA Parliamentary Party Meeting. He Doesn't enter the house. as per reporting from Navbharat Live. aug 6 - Mallikarjun Kharge, in Rajya Sabha, asks "Why is the Prime Minister not coming? Why is the Home Minister not coming?" as Per Kerala Kamudi - this is consistent with the RS transcript. aug 11 - congress MP Manickam Tagore attacks the absent home minister. as per reporting by the ANI. aug 12 - Amit Shah says to the media, "have been coming to Parliament regularly since the Session began; I sit in my chamber." talking to the media, at around 12:30 PM, Amit Shah offered "If the Opposition wrote to the speaker, there would be a debate from 3 PM wednesday (12 aug - the same day) to 3 PM thursday (13 aug - the next day) this was roughly a 2 hour window to submit the letter. he further said "I will sit in the House; I will listen to everyone and respond to every point." Rahul Gandhi said "We are not interested in listening to his lecture, Who shot those students? Who blinded that student? Who ordered the lathi charge?" this referred to the Pellet Shots fired at the Student, Sahil Lochav. He asked about the Lathi Charge that happened in the protests on July 20th. The Opposition wanted a statement from Shah about this, Shah wanted them to submit a letter to the speaker, in a window of roughly 2 hours - after not being present for 17 straight settings. with no recorded appearance. aug 13 - Lok Sabha sits for 4 minutes. 11:00 AM to 11:04 AM. The National Song, Vande Mataram, is played. and then, the house is adjourned sine die. Both ever so honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Shri Amit Shah were present on these days. for the 4 minutes. --- Respected Finance Minister Ma'am, These were the facts I have pointed out. I have not said anything that was my own opinion. I have not framed the facts in a way that support any party. My facts were gathered by scraping Documents from the LS and RS portal, OCR'ing the PDFs, then parsing them and then Aggregating News Sources. - and pointing out facts from them. Cold, Hard, Records. I have not asked any questions yet - which I will do now. I am a human. I have evolved Pattern Seeking skills. I spot a pattern here. I see that for the entirety of the Monsoon Session, Prime Minister Modi, and Home Minister Shah, did not utter a word on the record of the Lok Sabha. They were not present in the house except for the last 4 minutes, on the last day. Shah says "He was sitting in his cabin", Ma'am, I don't think debates happen when you sit alone in a cabin. It happens on the floor, where the other side can ask questions too. I don't see a meaningful debate happening in an environment like the Parliament. I say this with utter disappointment. If Parliament is the venue for debate, why did the two most senior members of the government not speak there once in 19 sittings? And why was the one offer to debate made to the press on the 18th day, with a deadline of a couple of hours? Why are there "offers" even? I think it is your responsibility to be in debates because that is your entire job. As you say, "Demanding answers also carries an obligation to hear them." -- Well, were Amit Shah or Narendra Modi, hearing the Questions being asked? They were not in the house even. Please Answer my Doubts. I would be very obliged if you do so. Regards, Sarthak

Nirmala Sitharaman

@nsitharaman17h

Rahul ji, you ask the Prime Minister to choose a venue for a debate. There is already one: Parliament, where you happen to be the LoP. Just yesterday, Home Minister Shri @AmitShah offered a special session to debate SIR and EVMs. Why not show the same enthusiasm for a debate in Parliament that you show while issuing challenges on social media? Demanding answers also carries an obligation to hear them. There have been several occasions when you and your party have walked out of Parliament while the government was responding to your allegations. How do you claim to be so eager for a debate when you don’t even stay to hear the other side? It doesn’t stop at walkouts. You and the INDI Alliance have repeatedly disrupted proceedings, leading to entire sittings being washed out. If you are so keen on debating, why not allow Parliament to function in the first place? And then there’s the mock Parliament you recently held at the Congress President’s residence. Frankly, that was more a ‘mockery of Parliament’ than a ‘mock Parliament’. You found the time and enthusiasm for that exercise. Surely, the real Parliament deserves at least as much. You speak endlessly about protecting democracy and the Constitution. But that respect should also reflect in how you treat the institutions they have established. As for the issues you frivolously raise, bring specific allegations and evidence to back them up. Simply throwing together a long list of accusations doesn’t make your case any stronger. As LoP, you are expected to show some seriousness and responsibility. You say, “Daro mat.” Then bring the facts, face the scrutiny and stay to hear the answers. In the House, uphold the standards of debate you demand from others.

269

3,087

195

11,302

475,784