"Control Freak Sarkar": Congress After Leaders' Parliament Remarks Deleted

Calling the government a "control and command freak," the Congress said there was nothing in the remarks of Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarkun Kharge to merit deletion

The Congress kept the pressure on the government today over the deletion of senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge's remarks in parliament earlier this week. The BJP, it said, does not want the parliament to run through "consensus, collaboration, and concordance, but through clash, chaos, and conflict". Calling the government a "control and command freak," the party said there was nothing in either leader's remark that merited such a move.

Mr Gandhi and Mr Kharge had targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi while participating in a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address. They had questioned the Prime Minister's links with billionaire Gautam Adani, citing the meteoric rise in his fortunes after the BJP came to power in 2014.

"There is absolutely nothing which is remotely defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified in those addresses," senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said today. "Shri Rahul Gandhi and Shri Kharge spoke extremely politely and respectfully and based their addresses on factual narratives. It is amusing and supremely ironical to note that expunged portions even include questions asked!" a statement from him read.  

Describing Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar as "custodians and defenders of freedom of speech inside the Houses" Mr Singhvi said 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 added in a statement.