‘Democracy under attack, no Opposition leader allowed to speak in Parliament’: TMC MP Mahua Moitra

Last 3 days saw speaker @ombirlakota allow ONLY BJP ministers to speak on mike & then adjourn parliament with not single opposition member being allowed to speak.
Democracy IS under attack. And the speaker leads from the front. And I am willing to go to jail for this tweet.

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 15, 2023

Her tweet echoed Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury’s letter to Birla where he levelled similar allegations over the Parliament proceedings of last three days.

As the BJP government continued to corner the Congress in Parliament Wednesday, demanding an apology from MP Rahul Gandhi for his recent remarks in London, Chowdhury, in his letter to the Speaker complaint that his microphone had been muted for the last three days.

Chowdhury said he was writing the letter “with a heavy heart and deep sense of anguish” about “government-sponsored disruption in the House”. “I am deeply disheartened to observe that ever since the House resumed after the break on March 13, 2023, there has been a Government-sponsored disruption in the House. It appears to me as if there is a well-hatched conspiracy on the part of the party in power to tarnish the image of an individual member of an Opposition Party (Sh Rahul Gandhi),” he said.

Chowdhury added, “What is more disturbing for me to observe is that even the ministers themselves vociferously take the lead to disrupt the proceedings. The voice of the leaders of Opposition parties is not being heard at all.”

The Congress then drew the Speaker’s attention to his “muted” microphone and said Gandhi’s statements on the matter were “substantiated”.