New Delhi: The Congress was miffed that its two top leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, who are Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively, were not allowed to speak and raise objections during PM Modi’s reply to the Presidential address debate.
This denial by the respective Chairs, allegedly at the behest of the NDA government, was in violation of the parliamentary norms which gave weightage to the person holding the LoP post, said party insiders.
The grand old party’s grouse was that on July 2 Rahul Gandhi wanted to speak for a minute on the social strife in the northeastern state of Manipur, just ahead of the Prime Minister’s reply to the Presidential address, but the LoP was not given a chance and his mic was switched-off.
“Just as the Prime Ministers’ reply was about to begin on July 2, Rahul Gandhi raised his hand as the Leader of Opposition. It’s the second most important constitutional position after the Leader of the House, which is the Prime Minister. But our leader was denied the opportunity. It has never happened that the LoP’s mic had been switched off. When the Congress was in power and the BJP was in the opposition, the LoP’s mic was always on. Even in the state assemblies, the LoP’s mics are always on. But for the first time in the history of the country, the LoP’s mic had been switched off in the Lok Sabha. He was denied permission by the Speaker to speak on the issue of Manipur. That in itself was an act of insensitivity and lack of empathy towards the suffering state,” Lok Sabha MP Praniti Shinde told ETV Bharat.
According to Shinde, this happened as the LoP wanted the Congress MP from Manipur Alfred, who represents the hilly areas, to share his concerns in front of the PM, adding that the condition in the northeastern state was still not normal. She also said that while Rahul Gandhi had visited the state last year to express solidarity with the Manipur residents, the PM had not gone there even after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat flagged the issue recently.
“The Prime Minister does not belong to a particular party, when he is representing the country, he belongs to the entire nation. The least we expected from him is sensitivity, when so many people have died, when women have been paraded naked in Manipur, the least we expected of the PM was to listen to the local MP for just sixty seconds,” she said.
