Rahul Gandhi’s Attendance in Parliament: Amit Shah Targets Congress During Debate on No-Confidence Motion Against Speaker

On Wednesday in the Lok Sabha (House of the People), while Parliament was still in session, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a forceful effort to discredit Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party as Leader of the Opposition by accusing them of disregarding parliamentary procedure and making allegations about the way the Bharatiya Janata Party is treating its opposition in Parliament by alleging that they are not hearing or representing opposition voices.

Amit Shah went on to argue during the debate that he does not believe that any member of the government has attempted to stifle any voice from the opposition. He stated that it is the Speaker who decides who will speak, when they will speak and how long they will speak from the House, not the ruling party. According to him, providing an image of BJP as having no dissenting voices is an act of political motivation aimed at discrediting the BJP.

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He was very clear that Rahul Gandhi has not gone to Parliament for any other reason than that he is either in England or some other country on holiday; and he stated opposition parties have consistently shown a lack of strong arguments to oppose the government. Remembering the Emergency in 1975, Amit Shah pointed out that it was then that there was really an attempt by the incumbent government of that time to choke out the voice of opposition, including many people who were the leaders of opposition movement, who were placed into jails during this time. He explained that the current government has never done anything to prevent the voice of dissenting people to be heard in Parliament.

Amit Shah raised doubts regarding the objections to Speaker Om Birla by suggesting that out of all the speeches made on this Motion of No Confidence, 80% were spent discussing the conduct of the Government and not the Speaker of the House, thus, undermining the dignity of the House.

He responded to accusations regarding microphones being turned off in the House, stating that microphones are turned off according to Parliamentary Rules and Procedures for discipline purposes regardless of if you are a member of the government or in opposition. As an example, he pointed out that the microphone of Union Minister Giriraj Singh was turned off while he was addressing MP Pappu Yadav.