With his remarks in the United Kingdom creating a stir in India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Thursday said he had not spoken anything “anti-India”.
“I didn’t speak anything anti-India (in London seminar). If they will allow I will speak in Parliament,” Rahul said outside the Parliament.
On February 28, while speaking at the Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, Rahul said that India’s democracy is “under attack”. On March 6, at an event organised in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons, Rahul claimed, “Our mikes are not out of order, they are functioning, but you still can’t switch them on… Demonetisation, which was a disastrous financial decision, we were not allowed to discuss. The GST we were not allowed to discuss. Chinese troops entering Indian territory we were not allowed to discuss.”
The BJP has accused the Congress leader of ‘discrediting’ India and demanded an apology from him. The ruling party is expected to keep up its offensive against the Congress leader in Parliament for the rest of the week, sources told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
The Congress, meanwhile, has alleged that the government is diverting attention from the Adani issue by raking up Rahul’s speeches. “Whenever Congress raises the demand for JPC probe in Adani issue, to divert attention, they (BJP) won’t let the Session continue. BJP is scared that somebody will raise Gautam Adani’s name in the Parliament,” Congress leader Pawan Khera said on Thursday.
Echoing Rahul’s allegations, Opposition MPs have claimed that their voices have been silenced in the last three days of Budget Session. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra took to Twitter to state that democracy is “under attack” under the present regime, and that the Speaker is “leading” from the front.
“Last 3 days saw Speaker Om Birla allow ONLY BJP ministers to speak on mike & then adjourn parliament with not single opposition member being allowed to speak (sic),” she tweeted.
Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury’s letter to Birla, too, levelled similar allegations over the Parliament proceedings of last three days, that his microphone had been muted.
