'Allow MPs to speak freely in parliamentary meets'

A day after Congress leaders walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, Congress Party's Rahul Gandhi appealed to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to ensure that MPs are allowed to speak freely in panel meets.

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to intervene and ensure that elected MPs are allowed to speak freely in parliamentary panel meets, party sources said.

The request of the leader comes a day after Congress walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, alleging that the panel's time was being wasted in discussing armed forces' uniform instead of the crucial issue of national security.

On Wednesday, Gandhi was disallowed to speak at the meeting by the panel chairman Jual Oram (BJP) when he sought to raise the issues of Chinese aggression and better equipping the soldiers at the border in Ladakh.

The sources had said the issue of uniforms of the Army, Navy and the Air Force was being discussed in the presence of the Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat when Gandhi intervened to say that instead of discussing this, the political leadership should discuss the issues of national security and how to strengthen the forces who are fighting the Chinese in Ladakh.

READ: Rahul Gandhi walks out of defence panel meeting

The former Congress chief said the Army, Navy and the Air Force should decide what the colour of their uniform should be, and not the politicians. The Wayanad MP said the politicians should have no business to tell the Army, Navy or Air Force which uniform to wear and it is neither their jurisdiction nor domain and should not belittle them or insult them.

This led to a heated exchange at the meeting. The committee chairman did not allow Gandhi to speak further, following which the Congress leader decided to walk out, the sources said, adding party members Rajeev Satav and Revanth Reddy also left the meeting along with their leader.

Gandhi has been attacking the government over the issue of Chinese aggression. The BJP, however, had hit back, saying the Congress leader had been skipping the meetings of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence.

With PTI inputs