Land Bill vote: Absent MPs face PM Modi's ire

NEW DELHI: BJP MPs got a taste of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of functioning when 24 Lok Sabha MPs — including five Union ministers — were hauled up for being absent in the House when the crucial Land Acquisition Bill was passed last week.

At the weekly parliamentary party meeting, Modi came prepared with a list of MPs who were absent when the bill was voted in the Lok Sabha. “Modi read out a few names of absentee MPs and then asked if those who were absent would stand up on their own or would like the names to be read out. About two dozen MPs stood up,” a BJP MP present in the meet told ET.

Modi then gave the list to Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and asked him to proceed. Naidu asked each member the reason for absence. According to sources, the absentees included ministers Sripad Naik, Babul Supriyo and Pon Radhakrishnan. Notable MPs in the absentee list included Varun Gandhi, Poonam Mahajan, Shatrughan Sinha, Pritam Munde, Kamlesh Paswan, Riddhi Pathak and Chandra Mohan Joshi.

The MPs, clearly taken aback by this treatment and with their party colleagues watching them, gave reasons which Modi and Naidu found unconvincing, sources said.