Monsoon session: 'I am never allowed to speak', says Rahul Gandhi; BJP hits back
tap to unmute
Playing Picture-in-picture
File photo
NEW DELHI: Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi
on Monday said that as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, it is his right to speak in the House, but he was not being allowed to do so while members of the government were making their statements.
Gandhi made these remarks to the media after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the second time following protests by opposition parties. The opposition had demanded a discussion on
Operation Sindoor
on the first day of the Monsoon session.
"The question is that the defence minister and their (the
BJP
) people are allowed to speak, but if someone from the opposition wants to say something, he is not allowed," Gandhi said.
"I am the Leader of Opposition, it is my right, I am never allowed to speak," he said, adding that this is a "new approach".
Gandhi also commented on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he "ran out of the House in a second".
"The debate will happen if they allow it, but the issue is that the convention states that if the people from the government say something, we should also be given space. We wanted to say two words, but the opposition was not allowed," he said.
Earlier in the day, following obituary references, opposition members led by the Congress demanded a discussion on Operation Sindoor.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around
Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List
Undo
Under this operation, the Armed forces carried out attacks on Pakistan following the terror attack in Pahalgam.
Speaker Om Birla told the House that all issues, including Operation Sindoor, could be raised after Question Hour, which is the first hour of the session when members ask questions related to different ministries and departments.
"I will allow you to raise all issues after Question Hour. The House will function only through rules and regulations.
It cannot allow sloganeering and raising of placards," Birla said.
BJP hits back at Rahul
Responding to Rahul Gandhi's allegations, the Bharatiya Janata Party hit back at the leader of the opposition, saying that his intention is not to allow the session to function. "Their intention is not to allow the session to function. Their intention is to not allow the discussion on valour of the armed forces. The Lok Sabha Chairman kept on saying that they will be allowed after the Question Hour, but they disturbed.
The Opposition is a disturbing element... People are seeing all this," BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said while talking to reporters.
BJP leader Jagdambika Pal also targeted Rahul, saying "You would have seen, I was continuously saying from the chair, the Speaker said that whatever issues that will be raised, the government is ready to answer. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister stood up, there is his business advisory committee meeting, the government is ready to answer, the defence minister reiterated... The way they did not allow the first day of the Monsson Session to function, it seems it was premeditated.
"
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Deccan Herald
11 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Mamata sets stage for 'Bangaliyana vs Hindutva', asks TMC workers to launch stir against BJP's linguistic terror
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of unleashing 'linguistic terrorism' on Bengalis across the country and called for a movement to protect the language and cultural identity of the state against such onslaughts by the saffron party. With the assembly elections in West Bengal less than a year away, Mamata not only blew the poll bugle with a no-holds-barred offensive against the BJP but also set the TMC's strategy to counter the saffron party's aggressive Hindutva with an assertive Bangaliyana. As she addressed a mammoth congregation of the TMC workers at the party's annual Martyrs' Day event in Kolkata to pay homage to the 13 people killed in police firing on July 21, 1993, while demanding fair polls, the TMC supremo also warned the BJP against using the Election Commission to manipulate the electoral rolls..'Being born Bengali has become crime in BJP states': CM Mamata Banerjee amid migrant party's general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, said that he and other parliamentarians of the TMC would now speak only in Bengali in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. 'We will not kowtow before any attempt by the BJP to erase Bengali.' 'We must win more seats in the 2026 assembly polls (in West Bengal) and then march to Delhi to oust the BJP from power at the Centre,' the TMC supremo said, coining the 'Jabda Habe, Stabdha Habe' (we will trounce them, silence them) as her party's new war cry for the 2026 assembly polls, moving on from the 'khela habe (game is on)'. The TMC over the past few weeks stepped up its attacks on the governments of the BJP-ruled states for the detention of migrant workers from West Bengal by police and, in some cases, even deportation to Bangladesh, often allegedly disregarding their claim of being genuine citizens of India. Mamata, the chief minister of West Bengal since 2011, on Monday accused the BJP-led governments in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat and Delhi of harassing migrant workers from her state only because they spoke in their mother language to witness 'artificial fight' between Modi and Mamata as polls nearing: Adhir.'The BJP wants to erase our identity, language, culture and pride. But I promise you, till the time we oust them from the Centre, our fight will continue,' she said. 'In 2019, they vandalised the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. They saw the results of that audacious act of insulting Bengali icons (in the 2021 assembly polls). Now, they have issued notifications to delete Bengali names from voter lists. In BJP-ruled states, Bengalis are being harassed and put in detention camps,' alleged the TMC supremo. 'If needed, there will be a second Bhasha Andolan (language movement) against the BJP's terrorism on the Bengali language... From July 27, a movement will start in Bengal to protest the attack on Bengalis, Bengali language and 'Bhasha Santras' (linguistic terrorism) of the BJP,' she said, adding: 'This language movement will continue till the end of the assembly polls.' The first 'Bhasha Andolan' had taken place in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1952 to protest the imposition of Urdu and sidelining of Bengali in the eastern part of Pakistan. A police crackdown had resulted in the death of at least 29 protesting students on February 21, 1952. The United Nations later declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day..'BJP is watching': Suvendu cautions police officers 'siding' with TMC.'(West) Bengal is home to nearly 1.5 crore migrants from other states. We welcome people from all over India. But look at what the BJP is doing to Bengalis (in the states ruled by it),' said Mamata. She called upon the TMC workers to be very cautious to resist attempts by the BJP and the EC to erase names of legitimate voters of West Bengal from the electoral rolls of the state and instead enroll people from other BJP-ruled states. 'The BJP and the EC are conspiring against (West) Bengal. They want to do in Bengal what they did in Bihar through SIR (Special Intensive Revision). In Bihar, they have deleted the names of 40 lakh voters. If they try it here, we will gherao them. We will never allow it,' she said.
Indian Express
11 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Jagdeep Dhankhar draws curtains on a stormy Rajya Sabha run
Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned as the Vice-President late on Monday citing his health, is no stranger to disagreements with the Opposition. Dhankhar was elected Vice-President in August 2022 and his term as the Rajya Sabha Chairman began on a controversial note during the Winter Session that year as he called the Supreme Court's 2015 judgment striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act a 'glaring instance' of 'severe compromise' of parliamentary sovereignty and disregard of the 'mandate of the people'. Since then, there have been several instances when he and Opposition MPs have not seen eye to eye. In August 2023, Dhankhar told the Opposition that he 'could not and would not' direct Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be present in the House as it was the PM's prerogative like any other MP to come to Parliament. He made this statement as the Opposition benches continued to demand the PM's presence in the Rajya Sabha to address them on the issue of violence in Manipur. The ties between the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Opposition hit a low during the Winter Session last year when 146 MPs were suspended from both Houses of Parliament, mostly over their demand for Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement on a Parliament security breach, followed by a discussion on the matter. It was the highest-ever number of suspensions in a Parliament session. As the proceedings came to a halt, Dhankhar wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Upper House, about the 'acrimony and disruptions'. Kharge replied saying that 'he was firmly in favour of dialogue and discussion'. In his letter, Dhankhar highlighted that the latter's 'refusal to meet him to resolve the political stalemate' was 'not in sync with parliamentary practices' and sought a meeting. Kharge had declined Dhankhar's invitation and in a letter said that the mass suspension of MPs was 'premeditated' and 'weaponised' by the ruling party to sabotage parliamentary practices. In June 2024, Dhankhar courted controversy after Kharge entered the Well of House during a protest against paper leaks, with Dhankhar saying this was the first time that a LoP had done such a thing and called it a 'stain' on Parliament. Kharge responded by saying he was trying to grab the attention of the Chairman who was looking towards the Treasury benches. In July 2024, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal questioned the manner in which the Upper House was being run by Dhankhar and claimed that in no country the presiding officer of a House 'frequently interrupts' members during their speeches. The same month, Dhankhar said the RSS has 'unimpeachable credentials' and Constitutional rights to contribute to the development of the nation. 'RSS is an organisation which is a global think tank of the highest order…,' he said in the House while responding to a comment from Samajwadi Party MP Ramji Lal Suman that the government's main criterion for appointments was if a person belongs to the RSS. In September 2024, in an apparent reference to Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, Dhankhar, without naming him, said nothing was more condemnable than someone holding a Constitutional post becoming 'part of enemies of the nation'. Dhankhar was speaking at Parliament to the third batch of the Rajya Sabha internship programme. During his visit to the United States that week, Gandhi said 'love, respect, and humility' were missing from Indian politics. In December last year, Dhankhar became the first person holding one of the top two constitutional posts to face the prospect of impeachment as the Opposition submitted a notice to move a no-confidence motion against him, a first in Indian Parliamentary history. However, after 60 INDIA bloc MPs gave a notice in the Rajya Sabha to bring a resolution for removal of Dhankhar, Deputy Chairman Harivansh rejected it, saying the petition was 'severely flawed', does not adhere to the requirement of 14 days' notice period and was 'drawn in haste and hurry' to 'mar the reputation' of Dhankhar and to 'damage the constitutional institution'. Earlier this year, in April, after the Supreme Court ruling set a three-month timeline for the President to decide on Bills referred by Governors of states, Dhankhar had said that India cannot have a situation where the judiciary directs the President. While the Supreme Court ruling addressed the long-running dispute between Governors and Opposition-ruled state governments, Dhankhar added that his worries are at the 'very highest level' and asked, 'There is a directive to the President by a recent judgement. Where are we heading? What is happening in the country?' Most recently, in June, Dhankhar waded into the political debate over the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble, referring to their addition to the Constitution by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency as 'sacrilege to the spirit of sanatan'. 'These words have been added as nasoor (festering wound). These words will create upheaval. Addition of these words in the Preamble during the Emergency signal betrayal of the mindset of the framers of the Constitution,' he said. Before he was elected Vice-President, Dhankhar served as the Governor of West Bengal when he had several run-ins with the government of Mamata Banerjee and became a vocal critic of the state administration. From the law and order situation in the state and post-poll violence to corruption accusations, alleged lapses in bureaucracy and the appointment of vice-chancellors in state universities, Dhankhar never shied away from criticising the government, which accused him of sitting on important BIlls. The situation took a turn for the worse when the state government in 2022 replaced the Governor with the CM as chancellor of state universities. His relationship with Mamata Banerjee became so acrimonious that the CM even blocked Dhankhar on social media. His relationship with Speaker Biman Banerjee was no less bitter, with the Speaker in 2021 complaining to then President Ram Nath Kovind about Dhankhar allegedly interfering in matters of the government. Born into a farmer's family at Kithana village in Jhunjhunu district in 1951, Dhankhar studied at a local government school before going to Sainik school in Chittorgarh. He studied law at the University of Rajasthan and became a professional lawyer, going on to serve as the president of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association. Dhankhar started his political journey with the Janata Dal and in 1989, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jhunjhunu. After that, he moved to state politics and was elected to the Rajasthan Assembly in 1993 from Kishangarh on a Congress ticket. He again tried his luck in the Lok Sabha elections in 1998 but lost from Jhunjhunu. Starting that year, Dhankhar served as a full-time senior advocate in the Supreme Court and in 2003 switched to the BJP. He advised the party on important legal matters.
The Hindu
11 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Farmer groups to step up campaign against FTA with U.S.
A general body meeting of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) held in New Delhi on Sunday (July 20, 2025) has warned the Union government against going ahead with the proposed trade agreement with the United States. The SKM said, in a statement on Monday (July 21, 2025), that the general body has also called for nationwide protests against the deal as it could act against the interests of farmers. The SKM will observe August 13 as 'Corporations Quit India Day' and said it seriously apprehends that the Narendra Modi government is surrendering to the diktats of the 'U.S. Imperialism' to sign the free trade agreement (FTA). The SKM said such an agreement could lead to opening up of agriculture, dairy and food markets and that will hurt the interests of the people. 'The FTA is supposed to come into effect by August 1, 2025. August 9 is the 83rd anniversary of the Quit India Day movement against British colonialism. To protest the BJP-led NDA government's moves to accept USA's pressures and increase imports of food and dairy items, including Genetically Modified foods and penetration of multinational corporations in food markets, SKM will issue a mass warning through these mass protests,' the statement said. 'Peasants will raise the slogan 'Corporations Quit India' on August 13 by organising tractor/ motor vehicle parades and protest demonstrations and burn effigies of the US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,' the statement added. The meeting congratulated the leadership of the united trade union movement for the strike action on July 9. 'This was the 22nd general strike since the invention of neo-liberal policies and its success has filled confidence to all the democratic sections in the society that the entire working people are ready to fight back the anti-people policies of the ruling classes,' the statement said.
