Guwahati: Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition, on Tuesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, strongly objecting to being barred from speaking in the House on a national security issue and calling the move “a blot on our democracy.”
Gandhi wrote that during Monday’s discussion on the Motion on the President’s address, the Speaker asked him to verify a magazine he planned to reference about the 2020 India-China conflict.
He explained that under long-standing parliamentary practice, a member who wishes to refer to a document must authenticate it and accept responsibility for its contents, a requirement he fulfilled.
He noted that once a document is authenticated, members are typically allowed to quote it, and it becomes the government’s responsibility to respond, while the Speaker’s role concludes.
“Preventing me from speaking in the Lok Sabha today not only breaches this convention, but raises serious concerns that there is a deliberate effort to stop me, as the Leader of the Opposition, from discussing national security,” he wrote.
Gandhi stressed that national security was a key part of the President’s Address and required discussion in Parliament. He reminded the Speaker that, as the impartial custodian of the House, it was his constitutional and parliamentary duty to protect the rights of every member, including the opposition, noting that these rights are essential to democracy.
He also called the situation unprecedented, saying that for the first time in parliamentary history, the Speaker, allegedly under government pressure, blocked the Leader of the Opposition from speaking on the President’s Address.
“This is a blot on our democracy, and I register my strongest protest,” he wrote.
Earlier, Gandhi had authenticated an article citing former Army Chief M.M. Naravane’s unpublished memoir, but the issue remained unresolved, leading to a brief adjournment of the House.
When Gandhi continued to press the issue, Speaker Krishna Prasad Tenneti turned to other members. Harish Balayogi of the TDP, part of the NDA, spoke on the President’s Address after three opposition MPs chose not to participate as a show of support for Gandhi.