Rahul Gandhi goes missing as parliament debate on ‘historic’ bill

NEW DELHI: Where was Rahul Gandhi on a day Lok Sabha witnessed a "historical" Lokpal debate as almost the entire House put it. The star Congress MP and party general secretary was conspicuous by his absence in Lok Sabha on Saturday, when the House under pressure from a fasting Anna Hazare debated the Lokpal bill.

This, just a day after he broke his silence on the Lokpal issue by making a speech during zero hour -- something for which Speaker Meira Kumar was attacked.

However, while the Amethi MP may have chosen to skip what was termed a "historic" day, he did not escape opposition's attention. Opening the debate on Lokpal, leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj raised the issue of Rahul's "out-of-turn" speech on Lokpal on Friday without a notice to the Speaker, calling it his "sermon to the nation".

He was not spotted in Parliament since Friday morning, after he spoke for 15 minutes during zero hour when no member is allowed to raise an issue for more than three to five minutes. "Was Rahul Gandhi's speech a zero hour intervention or an address to the nation," asked Swaraj.

She insisted that Rahul's remarks were the line of the Congress party which "poured cold water on the statesmanship displayed by the prime minister on the floor of the House" a couple of days back in a bid to end the impasse.

Amid objections and protests from Congress members, Swaraj also took a dig at Speaker Meira Kumar for allowing Rahul to speak for so long while other members were restricted to just three to five minutes during zero hour.