Congress brands PM Modi “biggest dramabaaz”, says his remarks on opposition hypocrisy are misleading.
Leaders cite rushed bills, Manipur no-confidence motion, and public issues like unemployment and inflation.
PM Modi urges opposition to move past Bihar poll defeat, calling Parliament a place for “delivery, not drama”.
Congress leaders on Monday pushed back sharply against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that the Opposition was turning Parliament into a stage for “drama”, accusing him of sidelining key public concerns while criticising parliamentary conduct.
According to PTI, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the prime minister’s comments ahead of the Winter Session, that Parliament is meant for “delivery, not drama” and reflected “nothing but hypocrisy”. In a post on X, Kharge argued that instead of responding to the “real issues of people”, Modi had once again delivered “dramebazi”. He alleged that the government had been “trampling on parliamentary decorum and system for the past 11 years”, pointing to what he called a well-known record of rushed legislation.
Kharge said that ordinary people continued to grapple with unemployment, inflation, rising economic inequality and the “looting of the country’s precious resources”, while those in power “play the game of dramabazi in the arrogance of authority”. He added that, during the last Monsoon Session, at least 12 Bills were cleared at speed — some in less than 15 minutes and some without discussion, and recalled how, according to PTI, the government had previously “bulldozed” the three farm laws, GST, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and other major Bills through Parliament.
On the long-standing demand for a discussion on Manipur, Kharge said the prime minister “remained silent until the Opposition brought a no-confidence motion”. He also flagged the deaths of Booth Level Officers, saying that “due to SIR, BLOs are continuously losing their lives due to the workload in the process”. The Opposition, he said, intends to prioritise matters such as “vote theft” and will continue to raise them inside Parliament.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh echoed the criticism, saying the prime minister “never attends Parliament, undermines it and doesn’t engage with the Opposition”. PTI reported him as saying that Modi routinely makes appeals for cooperation before each session, while refusing to allow the Opposition space to raise pressing issues. “The PM’s statement before Parliament begins is nothing but hypocrisy. The biggest dramabaaz of them all is talking of drama,” Ramesh said on X.
He added that if parliamentary proceedings break down, “the fault is entirely that of the PM and his stubborn refusal to allow the Opposition to raise issues of urgent public importance”. Ramesh said Modi “always wants to have his way without giving the Opposition an opportunity to at least have its say”.
Earlier in the day, Modi criticised the Opposition for stalling proceedings. “We need to work with a sense of responsibility. Parliament is not a place for drama, it is a place for delivery,” he said. Referring to the Opposition’s defeat in the Bihar elections, he claimed they were unsettled by the result and “unable to digest failure”.
“For some time now, our Parliament is being used either as a warm up arena for elections or as an outlet for frustration after defeat,” the prime minister said. He added that “defeat should not be the ground to create disruption” and that “victory should not convert into arrogance”. The Opposition, he said, must come out of its “depression” after electoral losses and “change their strategy”. “I am ready to give them a few tips,” he remarked.
(With inputs from PTI)
