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- By News Desk
- Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:50 PM (IST)
- Source:PTI
The BJP on Tuesday asked Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to stop levelling false allegations that he was not allowed to speak in the House, and said he must follow the rules and the procedures of Parliament if he wants to exercise his right to speak. Senior BJP leader and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed Congress MPs for their unruly behaviour in the Lower House, saying Parliament is not a place where members can throw papers at the Chair and "dance" by climbing on the desk.
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for "unruly behaviour" after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed for the second day from quoting an article that cited an unpublished "memoir" of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict. 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.
Gandhi wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, lodging his strong protest over being disallowed from speaking in the House on a matter of national security and terming it a "blot on our democracy". He also said that it was for the first time in history that a leader of the opposition was not allowed to speak on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address.
Hitting back, Rijiju said, "Rahul Gandhi does not follow rules, and then he says he is not allowed to speak. He is repeatedly saying that he is not allowed to speak, and we are asking him to speak. But, he says that he will speak, crossing the boundary of the rules." "So, he should exercise the right to speak according to law and stop repeatedly levelling false allegations that he is not being allowed to speak," the parliamentary affairs minister told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
"If you don't follow the law and behave as if you are above Parliament, how will this country run?" he added.
When asked for his remark on the suspension of the Congress members, Rijiju refused to make any comment. How, however, said, "I would like to say here that nobody is above the rules. If any MP thinks that he is above the rules of Parliament and the Constitution, then it is not possible."
Rijiju said everybody in Parliament, including him, the Lok Sabha speaker, Rajya Sabha chairman and members are bound to follow the rules, and there are provisions for "punishment" for any violation of the rules. "This is not the place where you can throw papers at the Speaker and dance by climbing on the table. Parliament is the temple of democracy," he added.
Reacting sharply to the Congress members' conduct in the Lok Sabha, Union minister Giriraj Singh said, "Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are treating Parliament as their party office where whatever the 'yuvraj' and 'pappu bhaiya' says would be right."
"The Congress has been destroying the dignity of the House with its behaviour. And today they crossed the limit," Singh told reporters in the Parliament House complex. "Perhaps they believe that only the Gandhi family is entitled to rule and the son of a tea seller cannot remain at the helm," he charged. "Parliament will function with rules and regulations, not by anybody's diktat."
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey termed the Congress members' behaviour in the Lok Sabha "hooliganism" and alleged that the main opposition party wants to hold Parliament hostage. These people from Congress are "goons", not protectors of democracy, he charged. "The Gandhi family still believes that they are the rulers of this country," Dubey told reporters at the Parliament House complex.
(Note: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Daily Jagran staff. Credit:PTI)