Om Birla failed as Speaker, gagged Rahul Gandhi, says Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

KOTA/JAIPUR: Chief minister Ashok Gehlot lashed out at Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla in the latter’s hometown on Saturday over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the parliament’s lower house.
The Lok Sabha speaker failed to do his duties impartially, alleged Gehlot while addressing the Congress party’s division-level meeting at the Maharao Ummed Singh Stadium in Kota.
The CM said that the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Gandhi raised issues of rising prices, unemployment, social disharmony, and widening gap between the poor and the rich, which made the yatra popular and raised the stature of the Congress leader. It was because of this, Gehlot told party workers, that Gandhi was not allowed to speak in parliament and when he approached the Lok Sabha speaker, Birla refused to allow him to speak and instead sought an apology from him.
“Birla ji was working under pressure,” Gehlot said and compared him with Rajasthan assembly speaker C P Joshi, who, Gehlot claimed, showed no partiality between the ruling party and the opposition.
The post that Birla holds is no ordinary post and it was a proud moment for people of Rajasthan when he was made the Lok Sabha speaker, Gehlot said to further underline the disappointment that Birla had caused.
The CM said that by talking of a religion-based Hindu Rashtra, PM Modi, Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat have incited people like Amritpal Singh to demand a separate Sikh nation of Khalistan.
Addressing another meeting of party workers in Jaipur, , Gehlot said the BJP will have to face the consequences of Gandhi's expulsion from Parliament.
“The entire opposition is united on the issue of Gandhi's disqualification and this unity is a good sign,” the CM said at the meeting held in Sanganer.
The BJP has been attacking Gandhi, a former Congress chief, over his "democracy under attack" remarks in the UK and demanding he apologise, and has criticised him over his 2019 comment.