Taking a jibe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the BJP on Sunday dubbed him a “non-performing chief” of a party that is doing negative politics as against the positive politics pursued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“After the defeat of the no-confidence motion in Parliament, the Congress non-working committee met today (Sunday) under a non-performing party President Rahul Gandhi. His mother Sonia Gandhi chaired the CWC (Congress Working Committee) for 20 years and after that her son Rahul Gandhi is chairing it. This is not how a democracy functions,” BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference here.

He said that the two-line decision taken at the CWC meeting was that the Congress does not want to win and its sole aim is to stop Modi at any cost.

“The Congress has decided to play the role of a suicide bomber. It is negative politics. Positive Politics is being performed under the leadership of Modi. The people of the country, who believe in positive and developmental politics, will never accept this negative politics,” he said.

The BJP leader also hit out at UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for her “reverse countdown” jibe at the Prime Minister, saying the country had few days back seen the politics of “hug and wink” and the rhetoric on the floor of Parliament.

Addressing the CWC meet, Sonia Gandhi had said earlier in the day that the Prime Minister’s rhetoric shows his “desperation” reflecting that the “reverse countdown” of the Modi government has begun.

“You (Sonia) were runing the country in reverse gear and you are now talking of reverse countdown. The reverse countdown of dynastic politics, appeasement politics and caste politics has begun,” Patra said.

He said that the whole purpose of the CWC meet was to back Rahul Gandhi as Congress candidate for 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“What is new in Sonia’s backing of Rahul as PM. This was the whole purpose of CWC. Sonia’s only ambition is to back Rahul as PM candidate,” he said.

Commenting on former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s remarks that the Congress can win three times more seats in the 2019 general elections, Patra asked: “If a party is looking at contesting only 150 seats, how can it dream of getting the Prime Minister’s post?”

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) members walked out of the Lok Sabha on Friday as the House began a debate on a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modis government.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the discussion on the no-trust motion would continue for the entire day and the vote would take place at 6 p.m.

She said the House would also skip lunch.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge sought more time from the Speaker saying 38 minutes allotted for his party leaders to address the Lok Sabha was not enough.

He also sought more time for the members of Trinamool Congress, Left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

“This is a very important motion. The country is watching us to know what we have to say and how the government is going to respond. Don’t limit the time. There are precedents when no-confidence motions have been debated for two, three or even five days. Therefore if you sum up in five hours, it is not justified,” Kharge said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar responded, saying Kharge is a senior leader but needed to understand that “in one-day cricket era, there was no need to play a test cricket match for five days”.

The BJD, which has 19 members in the Lok Sabha after the resignation of Kendrapara MP Baijyant Jay Panda, then walked out.

Its leader Bhartruhari Mahtab said injustice had been done to Odisha in the last 14 years and the BJP government at the Centre has failed to safeguard the interests of the state.

“In the last 14 years, the BJD has witnessed that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for 10 years and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for four years have done injustice with Odisha. And this discussion is not going to help Odisha. So we are not going to participate,” Mahtab said.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an estranged ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government, moved the no-confidence motion on Wednesday, which was admitted by Mahajan.

The no-confidence motion has the support of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

The ruling NDA, however, enjoys a comfortable majority in the House. The BJP which leads the ruling combine has 273 members in the House that has an effective strength of 533, excluding the Speaker.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said French President Emmanuel Macron had told him that there was no secrecy pact with India on the Rafale jet deal, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had lied to the nation about it.

“I personally met the French President and asked him if there was a secrecy pact with India. He told me that no such pact was signed between the two countries. He said he had no hesitation in saying this and that I can tell this to my country,” Gandhi thundered in the Lok Sabha.

Gandhi said the price per plane during the UPA regime was Rs 520 crore but when Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to France and “with some magic” powers, the price per plane increased to Rs 1,600 crore.

“Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is here. She said she would reveal the price. But after that she said clearly she cannot because the French and Indian governments have a secrecy pact.

“The Prime Minister has lied to the country. Sitharaman under pressure from the Prime Minister has lied to the country. They must tell the nation. The Prime Minister and the Defence Minister must tell the nation.”

The mention of the Rafale deal triggered noisy protests from the ruling party MPs.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday took everyone in the Lok Sabha by surprise when he went and hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi after tearing into the BJP-led government during the no-confidence motion.

“I have not an iota of hatred or hard feelings against you. You hate me, I may be ‘Pappu’ for you. But I love you and respect you because I am the Congress,” Gandhi said at the end of his fiery speech.

He then walked across to the ruling benches and hugged Modi who was also taken by surprise.

The Prime Minister, a little taken aback at first, called Gandhi back and shook hands with him with a pat on his back. The two exchanged some words.

As the opposition members gave Gandhi a standing ovation and thumped their desks, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said such conduct was against the rules of the House.

Karnataka deputy chief minister (DCM), Dr G Parameshwar, has instructed senior police officers to increase the number of police personnel in plainclothes on patrol duty to bring down cases of atrocities over women in the state. He issued this instruction during the second meeting about app-based taxi services, which was held at his office on Thursday, July 19.

Parameshwar noted that ensuring the safety of women who use app-based taxi services is very important and that it should be ensured that atrocities on women never happen when using these services. He asked the police to hold discussions with the concerns operating such services and take suitable steps to improve safety aspects relating to women.

The DCM noted that although there have been a number of laws and programmes aimed at handling atrocities on women, there is lack of proper knowledge about them among the people. He, therefore, asked the officials to see that knowledge about the laws governing women’s safety, programmes and information about the helpline effectively reach the populace through advertisements. Noting that there are enough grants under Nirbhaya scheme, he asked the police to use this grant to buy 5,000 CCTV cameras, a thousand two-wheelers, as well as jeeps and deploy additional police in plain clothes for patrolling during nights to keep an eye on such activities.

Parameshwara also held discussions with a delegation from Bavaria, a federal state in Germany, which has offered to train Belagavi police during November this year. Similar training had been imparted for Mysuru police earlier. He wanted the delegation to come up with ideas to increase the number of police stations and also the percentage of women personnel in the police force.

As the CBI on Thursday filed a charge-sheet against former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case, the Congress said the senior party leader is “a victim of vendetta” of the Narendra Modi government.

“The kind of vendetta that Modi government unleashes every day is extremely unfortunate and one of the victims of that vendetta has been former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

“Modiji is blind in his rage against Congress leadership,” he added.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the government is misusing its power and authority as well as the agencies.

“This is the first time that we are seeing this thing happening in the country. There are multiple agencies registering the case for the same alleged offense.

“The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) registers one case, then there is constant harassment, interrogation, bail, then the ED (Enforcement Directorate) comes with the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) method and then the Revenue Intelligence moves in,” said Sharma.