Ramesh flays BJP MPs' praise of Modi

Congress leader and senior parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh has criticised BJP MPs for "excessively" praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Parliament, saying their actions sometimes give him the feeling that he is sitting in the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, a totalitarian Communist country. In an interview with PTI, Ramesh responded to questions related to India's foreign policy in the wake of attacks on Iran by the forces of the US and Israel, alleging that all matters concerning the country- -including external affairs and finance- -are handled by a single man.

The longtime Rajya Sabha MP said he sometimes felt he was "sitting in the Parliament of North Korea"- -a reference to the actions of members of the SPA when their supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, enters- -when he listened to speeches from the treasury benches in New Delhi.

"Today, it's a one-man show. It's a one-man band. So it's the PM's foreign policy, it's the PM's budget. Everything is the PM," Ramesh said. The AICC general secretary in-charge (Communications) said that when he sat in Parliament in the morning, he was the first to arrive and the last to leave. The senior leader said he came, sat regularly and diligently, and remained there throughout the day.

"Sometimes I get the impression that I'm sitting in the Parliament of North Korea. I listen to the people from the BJP. Whatever be the subject, whatever the issue, 90 per cent of the speech will be praising the Prime Minister. Nothing to do with the subject, nothing to do with the bill. They will be praising the Prime Minister." Responding to suggestions that the Congress position amounted to a Leftist stance, he said: "It's not a left position. This is the nationalist position. We are taking a nationalist position."

He cited India's stand during the 1971 Bangladesh crisis.

"Look at 1971, the American position on Bangladesh, how they tried to make life impossible for Indira Gandhi and how she stood up to Richard

Nixon," he said.