Rahul alleges govt 'stifling his voice', seeks apology from Harsh Vardhan for 'unparliamentary' remarks

NEW DELHI: Congress on Friday slammed the Modi government for “stifling its voice” every time it sought to question the government. Party MP Rahul Gandhi alleged the BJP did not “like him speaking in the House” and stopped him, as a result, in what he called was a “completely unparliamentary manner.”
Rahul also claimed that Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had acted at the behest of higher ups in the government and read out a statement demanding an apology from him instead of answering a question about his parliamentary constituency not having a medical college.
“It is a long standing issue. People are struggling because they don’t have access to medical facilities. So, I wanted to raise that issue. BJP obviously doesn’t like me to speak in the House. So, in a completely unparliamentary manner, the health minister raised something that I said outside, which he has no business doing during Question Hour,” he said.
Later, Congress lodged a formal complaint against Vardhan with Speaker Om Birla, demanding action against the minister and an apology from him for his “unparliamentary” remarks against Rahul Gandhi. “Gandhi pleaded that his rights and privileges should be restored and opportunity should be given to him to ask questions. I have said our member in the Well went there due to the emotional outburst triggered after the minister’s remarks. If found to be wrong, we will also express regret,” Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
Rahul also claimed Congress was being silenced systematically. “We are not allowed to speak in Parliament. Now the health minister instead of giving an answer to my question, he is raising some other issue. So, wherever they can suppress our voice, they try to do it,” Gandhi said.
The former Congress chief also broadcast his protest on social media. “The orchestrated ruckus in Parliament today was designed to prevent me from questioning the government. The youth of India can clearly see that the PM has no clue about how to tackle the unemployment crisis...To protect him, the BJP will keep disrupting Parliament, preventing debate,” he said on Twitter.
Congress leader Anand Sharma also clarified that neither the Congress nor Rahul Gandhi had at any point expressed any intent to cause hurt to the PM. Adding that the Question Hour is a formal proceeding in which Rahul’s question was listed, Sharma said the Congress MP “cannot be denied his right and the minister cannot violate his right.”
Congress MP Manickam Tagore, who had rushed into the Well of the House to protest against Vardhan also lodged a separate complaint with Birla alleging BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh had pushed and threatened him. Demanding immediate action against the BJP MP, Tagore asked him to have the CCTV footage in the House examined.