The Congress has termed undemocratic and unparliamentary the expunction remarks of party Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi, excision of remarks of Leader of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and suspension of Rajani Patil from the Rajya Sabha.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, MP & National Spokesperson while addressing the media stated that the BJP does not want the
parliament to run through Consensus, Collaboration, and Concordance, but through Clash, Chaos,and Conflict. “Not a word stated (By Gandhi and Kharge) there in justifies the use of the power of expunction. You can ask for the text if not already with you and see that there is no use of unparliamentary language, no expletives, 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,” said Singhvi.“The Honorable Speaker and the Chairperson of the two respective Houses are constitutional office holders and the
custodians and defenders of freedom of speech inside the Houses which is a fundamental pillar of our democracy,
especially within the temple of democracy viz Parliament. Without their robust shield, the spirit of healthy parliamentary discussion and debate will perish. Freedom of speech is the foundation of our Constitution and even
more so within the legislature. Each one of us has to defend the right to free speech on the floor of the two Houses.
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 imperiled. Parliament can hardly remain the grand inquest of the nation if free speech leading to fearless discussion is throttled,” he said days before the current parliament session breaks for
a recess on 14 February. Referring to the suspension of RS MP Rajani Patil, Sanghvi said that it was like a 15 minute surgical strike in which no show cause notice was issued and no prior intimation was given to her before suspending her. “Patil has not dealt with the facts alleged against her (since she has had no opportunity to do so) but, assuming
without accepting that any video recording was made, it cannot possibly amount to “persistent and willful” misconduct by her. At worst, it was a one time, first time, alleged act, yet to be proved and could not possibly constitute any persistent, consistent or repetitive obstructive
course of conduct. In this case, 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. The Prime Minister spoke for over 90 minutes and
by no stretch of imagination can it be said that the alleged action of Ms. Patil obstructed the PM’s speech or put the
functioning of the House in jeopardy. There have been similar alleged incidents in the past, including by members of the present ruling party, where no action was taken or, at the highest, warnings sufficed.
The present suspension is disproportionate, excessive and actuated purely by political malice at the behest of
this government. The Chair 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,”, he said.
