'Blot On Our Democracy': Rahul Gandhi Writes To Speaker Over Being Prevented From Speaking In Parliament

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, lodging his strong protest over being disallowed to speak in the House on a matter of national security and terming it a "blot on our democracy".

In his letter to Birla, he alleged that the Speaker acted at the "behest" of the government and was forced not to allow him to speak, and said preventing the Leader of Opposition from exercising his right to speak in the House was against Parliamentary practices and convention.

The Congress leader noted that while speaking on the Motion on the President's address on Monday, the Speaker had directed him to authenticate a magazine which he intended to refer to while raising the India-China conflict of 2020.

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He said that as per long-standing convention, including repeated rulings of past Speakers, a member wishing to refer to a document in the House is required to authenticate it and affirm responsibility for its contents, which he did.

Thereafter, he said, the Speaker allows the member to quote or refer to the document and it becomes the responsibility of the government to respond, and the role of the Chair stands concluded.

"Preventing me from speaking in the Lok Sabha today not only violates this convention, but also gives rise to a serious concern that there is a deliberate attempt to prevent me, in my capacity as the Leader of the Opposition, from speaking on matters of national security.

"It is worth repeating that national security was a key part of the President's Address, which requires a discussion in Parliament," Gandhi told Birla in letter.

He said as an impartial custodian of the House, it is the Speaker's Constitutional and Parliamentary responsibility to safeguard the rights of every member, including those of the opposition.
The right of the Leader of the Opposition and of each Member to speak is integral to our democracy, he noted.

"The refusal of these basic democratic rights has led to an unprecedented situation. For the first time in Parliamentary history, on the behest of the government, the Speaker has been forced to prevent the Leader of the Opposition from speaking on the President's Address," the Congress leader said in his letter.

"This is a blot on our democracy, against which I record my strongest protest," he said.

The government-opposition faceoff in the Lok Sabha intensified on Tuesday as eight protesting MPs were suspended for "unruly behaviour" after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed for the second day from quoting an article that cited an unpublished "memoir" of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict.

Gandhi had authenticated a copy of the article in the Lok Sabha, but it failed to end the impasse over the matter.

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The seven MPs from the Congress and one from the CPI (M) were suspended for the remainder of the Budget session, which ends on April 2, for trying to climb on the table of the secretary general, tearing papers and hurling them at the Chair.

(Note: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by The Daily Jagran and has been published through a syndicated feed. Source - PTI)