Modi govt silencing Opposition in ongoing Parliament's Monsoon session: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government of silencing the Opposition in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.

She said the Opposition has been urging the government to allow discussions in Parliament, to which the government should agree.

Speaking to the media, the Congress leader Gandhi also accused the treasury benches of orchestrating disruptions in Parliament to silence the voices of the opposition during the last Budget Session.

"Whenever the Opposition leaders want to speak, they are not allowed to speak. We have been asking for discussions; they should agree. In the last session, I was surprised to see that disruption was starting from the treasury benches. They would pick a topic so that we react to it, and then there is a hungama, and then the House would get adjourned. It is suiting them just fine," the Congress MP said.

Meanwhile, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi joined Opposition-bloc INDIA's protest in the Parliament House complex against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar.

Opposition MPs, right from the start of the ongoing Monsoon Parliament session, have been demanding that the EC's SIR move in Bihar should be rolled back. The Opposition has also been demanding a discussion on the issue in both houses.

Ahead of the start of the day's proceedings, top leaders and MPs of the opposition, including those from the Congress, DMK, TMC, Samajwadi Party, JMM, RJD and Left parties, assembled outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament and raised slogans against the government and the SIR of electoral rolls.

Top leaders from Congress, including Sonia Gandhi, general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K C Venugopal, and other Opposition leaders, Samajwadi Party's Ziaur Rahman Barq, TMC's Kirti Azad, DMK's A Raja, among others, raised slogans like "Save democracy" and "Stop vote-bandi".

There was a huge banner in front of them which read 'SIR - Loktantra par Vaar' as they lined up on the steps of the Makar Dwar of Parliament and staged a protest for the third consecutive day.

The Opposition has been protesting in both houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at disenfranchising voters in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections.