Parliament will perish sans freedom of speech: Congress on expunction of Kharge, Rahul's remarks

Eighteen remarks of Rahul and eight of Kharge on the Adani Group issue were recently expunged from Parliament records

Warning that Parliament cannot remain the "grand inquest of the nation” if free speech is throttled, the Congress on Sunday said the "autocratic and dictatorial face" of the ruling BJP was exposed through the "brazen, undemocratic and unparliamentary" expunction of remarks of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi and the suspension of Rajani Patil.

Finding fault with the “brazen partisanship” shown against its members, the party said the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman are custodians and defenders of free speech while emphasising that the spirit of healthy parliamentary discussion and debate will perish without their robust shield.

It said that the episodes in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha showed that the BJP was moving towards establishing an "authoritarian dominance" in Parliament by "terrifying, terrorising, tormenting and tyrannising" the Opposition while accusing the ruling party of not wanting to run Parliament through "consensus, collaboration and concordance".

"The BJP wants to run the Parliament through clash, chaos and conflict...This government’s and the ruling party’s approach show that this is the most curb, control and command freak ‘sarkar’ in the history of this nation," senior MP and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

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Defending the speeches made by Rahul in the Lok Sabha and Kharge in the Rajya Sabha, Singhvi told a press conference that not a word uttered by them justifies the use of power of expunction, as there is "no use of unparliamentary language, no expletive, no debasement of any institution, no objectionable or abusive word or phrase".

"There is absolutely nothing which is remotely defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified in those addresses. Rahul Gandhi and Kharge spoke extremely politely and respectfully and based their addresses on factual narratives. It is amusing and supremely ironic to note that expunged portions even include questions asked," he said.

Eighteen remarks of Rahul and eight of Kharge on the Adani Group issue and links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their speeches during the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address were expunged from Parliament records.

"If the two Houses cease to be a space for free speech, then we will no longer be able to call ourselves a democracy. Unless free, frank and fearless discussion is allowed to take place within the two Houses of Parliament, democracy is fundamentally and irreversibly imperilled. Parliament can hardly remain the grand inquest of the nation if free speech leading to fearless discussion is throttled," Singhvi said.

On the suspension of Patil accusing her of filming Rajya Sabha proceedings, Singhvi claimed it was "another example of yet another low in a series of unprecedented heights of undemocratic behaviour and sad precedents created at the behest of this autocratic government".

He also claimed that the Chairman "ought not to have acted on the one sided and unilateral proposal of the ruling dispensation, without awaiting even a preliminary inquiry, when the conduct of the ruling party and government smacks of one sidedness and bias".

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Calling the action a "surgical strike in 15 minutes", Singhvi said the entire opposition had no option but to walk out of the House on Friday in protest. He said that the cart was put before the horse and the entire normal sequence of natural justice was inverted on its head.

"While referring the issue to the privileges committee, coercive action was taken against Patil before the determination of any relevant fact, before the finding of any culpability and before even the commencement, much less the conclusion, of even the vestige of any inquiry. All elementary notions of fair play were thus thrown to the winds," he charged.

He also raised the issue of "selective and one-sided approach" of the Sansad TV in broadcasting proceedings while alleging that it was "acting under the misconception that it is a government mouthpiece or a Sarkari department".

"The opposition was given an infinitesimal fraction of the coverage accorded to the Treasury benches and was virtually blacked out during the long speech of the Prime Minister. This is a new low of partisanship achieved in the directions of this dictatorial government. Such brazen and unconstitutional approaches, such blatant partisanship, such uncaring decimation of Rules and convention, such destruction of democratic values and such debasement of legislative proceedings deserves the strongest collective condemnation," it added.