Rahul Gandhi defied speaker's ruling, wasted House's time: Kiren Rijiju

New Delhi (PTI): Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday accused Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi of defying the speaker's ruling and wasting the time of the Lok Sabha by seeking to quote from an unpublished memoir of a former Army chief.

Talking to reporters here, Rijiju said Speaker Om Birla had ruled in the House that only authenticated documents can be quoted.

Citing House rules, Rijiju also said that books, periodicals and news clippings cannot be quoted during debates if they have no relevance to the proceedings.

Gandhi “repeated the same mistake” by defying the speaker's ruling and "wasted" the time of the House, the minister alleged.

A row erupted in the Lok Sabha on Monday after Gandhi sought to quote from the unpublished "memoir" of former Army chief General M M Naravane (retd), but Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with other BJP members, strongly opposed it and accused the Congress leader of misleading the House.

As Gandhi rose to speak on the Motion of Thanks to the president's address, he said he would first like to respond to the charges made by the previous speaker, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, against the Congress on nationalism and began quoting from what he said was the “memoir” of Gen Naravane.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 4 pm amid the row over Gandhi’s attempt to quote from the “memoir”.