Uproar in Parliament over Rahul Gandhi's London remark

New Delhi, March 13

The second leg of the Budget session began on a stormy note today with both Houses of Parliament getting adjourned for the day without transacting any substantive business amid the face-off between the government and the Opposition over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in London that “Indian democracy was in danger”.

Leading the attack against Rahul in the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the Congress leader must apologise for the remarks he made during his recent London visit as these were “harmful for the dignity and prestige of the country”. “Rahul is a member of the Lok Sabha and on a visit to London, he tried to defame the country and questioned the democratic institutions and claimed these were being damaged. He also asked foreign powers to come and save the Indian democracy,” he said.

Prestige harmed

Rahul’s comments are harmful for the country’s dignity and prestige… He tried to defame India and questioned democratic institutions. —Rajnath Singh, Defence minister

Sheer doublespeak

Those crushing democracy are talking of saving it. They are suppressing Opposition through misuse of agencies. —Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of oppn

Joining the issue, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said Rahul had “cast aspersions” on Speaker Om Birla by claiming that “his mike was switched off”. He went on to cite the Emergency (1975-77) to ask who had threatened democracy?

As the Opposition was protesting in the well of the House on issues such as alleged misuse of central probe agencies, price rise and the Adani-Hindenburg controversy, the Speaker adjourned the House till 2 pm. When the House reassembled, it was adjourned for the day amid an uproar over the same issue.

In the Rajya Sabha too, the ruling BJP and Opposition MPs traded charges over the same issue. As the Upper House resumed for the afternoon session, after having been adjourned earlier in the pre-lunch session, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said he had raised a serious matter in the morning regarding a senior Congress leader going abroad and stating that “democracy was in danger” in India and even sought the US and Europe intervention in the country’s affairs. “This House must condemn remarks by such a person,” he said, without naming Rahul. Till the time he (Rahul) apologised for the allegations he made against the Indian press, judiciary, Election Commission and the Indian Army, the country “would not forgive him”, Goyal asserted.

Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge objected to Goyal’s demand citing two previous rulings, implying that no member of Rajya Sabha could raise an issue regarding a person who was not a member of the House. He cited a ruling given by late VV Giri on June 19, 1967, that “a member of one House should not use the freedom of speech on the floor of the House to make allegations… against the members of the other House” and another one on March 17, 1983, by the then Vice-Chairman in favour of LK Advani, which stated “before referring to a member of the other House, one has to exercise a lot of care and caution…” “Therefore, whatever he (Goyal) said, it should be expunged. These are the rules and you have to follow,” Kharge said.

To this, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said, “I will first seek inputs from this House if you wish and seriously take this call.”

Goyal said that he did not take anyone’s name and the Opposition members were associating it to an individual by themselves and asked to whom the rulings that were cited by Kharge would apply. The Treasury and Opposition benches traded charges against each other, forcing the Rajya Sabha Chairman to adjourn the House for the day, saying he would give his ruling on the issue on Tuesday.

Talking to the media outside Parliament, Kharge hit back at the government saying those “crushing” democracy were talking of saving it. He also dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “dictator”. He took out a protest march from Parliament House complex to Vijay Chowk along with MPs of other Opposition parties, including BRS, Left and AAP.