Anurag Thakur Sparks Row In Lok Sabha With Comments On Nehru-Gandhi

Lok Sabha faced adjournments following Opposition protest over remarks of Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, who alleged that there was a link between Nehru-Gandhi family with PM National Relief Fund and objected to the manner in which the fund had been created by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Several opposition parties, including the Congress and Trinamool Congress, demanded an apology from Thakur. The minister was speaking on the Opposition’s objections to PM CARES Fund.

“Some Opposition members raised questions over PM Cares Fund. Opposing PM Cares Fund, just for the sake of it, is like they opposed EVMs and then lost many elections. They subsequently termed Jan Dhan, demonetisation, Triple Talaq and GST as bad. They find defect in everything, truth is their intention is bad,” he said.

“When you come to discussion for PM CARES, please do read the PM National Relief Fund. In 1948, then PM Nehruji ordered the creation of Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund like a royal order. From 1948 till today, it was not registered. How did it get FCRA clearance? The trust is not registered. PM CARES is a registered public charitable trust. This is for 130 crore people, you created a trust for the Gandhi family. Nehru, Sonia Gandhi were members of the PM National Relief Fund. This should be discussed,” he said.

Soon after Thakur’s remark, Congress and Trinamool Congress members raised a strong protest and demanded an apology from Thakur.

Speaker Om Birla urged members to allow the House to function normally but the din continued, forcing him to adjourn.

Later according to report by CNN- IBN , Anurag Thakur said it was not his intention to hurt anyone. “I apologise if I have hurt anyone unintentionally,” he says. During a discussion, Thakur had said he would “expose” those from the Gandhi family who “benefitted” from the PM National Relief Fund.