Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi has raised serious questions regarding the proceedings of Parliament. He said that when Rahul Gandhi was discussing MM Naravane’s book, there was an expectation in the House that the Chair would be completely impartial, but it did not happen. He alleged that the opposition leaders are not being given full opportunity to present their views.
LOP was interrupted again and again
Gogoi said that Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was interrupted several times. The speaker kept asking him repeatedly to ‘verify’ his point. Rahul Gandhi had said that in many countries of the world, resignations have taken place wherever someone’s name came up. The name of a minister has also come up in India and this is an international matter, so it is not easy to investigate and confirm it.
Rahul Gandhi kept asking for permission to speak
He told that Rahul Gandhi kept saying that he should be allowed to express his views. But while he was standing, the Speaker asked another member to speak. According to Gogoi, this is against parliamentary traditions. Gogoi said that a few days later, when Shashi Tharoor was speaking in the House, his mike was switched off. This sends the message that the voice of the opposition is being suppressed.
Quoting Sushma Swaraj’s statement
Referring to an old statement of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, he said that she had said about democracy that there is a feeling at the core of Indian democracy – we can be against each other, but not enemies. Opposition is based on ideology and policies. Gogoi said that this is the basic spirit of Indian democracy, but today the situation is such that when leaders of Congress, TMC, SP or other opposition parties want to speak in the House, they are not given the opportunity to speak.
Mention of Nehru’s statement
He also mentioned India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Gogoi said that Nehru had once said that speakers are the symbol of the country’s freedom, but today the question arises that when there is no freedom of speech, what happened to that feeling.
Question on trade deal with America
Gogoi also raised the question under what pressure India made the trade deal with America. He asked what kind of pressure was created. Was this pressure created because the names of a particular industrialist and a minister came up in some other international investigation?
Targeted at PM Modi
He said that the leadership of our country just speaks their mind. Don’t listen to others. Yesterday we had repeatedly demanded that there is a war in the Middle East. A neighboring country announces that we have given you exemption that you can take oil from any country. Where has that 56-inch chest foreign policy gone? The head of the country is silent and there is no discussion in the House. Why does this happen
Om Birla also attacked
What did Om Birla ji say? When the time came for the PM to speak, he advised the PM that some women MPs might surround his chair and he should not come. it is a shame. Whenever a woman MP from the ruling party is challenged, she is reminded that she is a woman. This is wrong. There was opposition to Manmohan Singh, but the then PM remained present among us.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju hit back
Rijiju said that Gaurav Gogoi commented on me, he is younger in age, like a younger brother. Has been a member of this House three times. When he came to this House, he went into opposition. He never saw the performance of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister of his Congress party. The Leader of Opposition said that I do not need anyone’s permission to speak in this House. I was thinking that there are many senior people in the Congress party. Why did the leader of the opposition not explain? Be it PM or LOP, permission is required to speak in this House. We never tore the paper and threw it on the chair. We never climbed the General Secretary’s table.
Mentioned Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi
After forty years a no-confidence motion was brought against the Lok Sabha Speaker. If you had read what Nehru ji or Rajiv Gandhi had said, you would have had more humility. You didn’t even read your old leaders. Nehru ji had said that this is not a party matter. This is a matter for the entire assembly. As far as the respect of Parliament is concerned, this issue becomes very serious. Whatever has been said about the President, it comes back to us.
