"BJP moving towards establishing authoritarian dominance in Parliament", claims Congress

New Delhi [India], February 12 : Hitting out at the Central government for the alleged "expunction" of several Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge for remarks in Parliament pertaining to the Adani-Hindenburg row, party MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Sunday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is moving towards establishing an "authoritarian" dominance in Parliament.
"The BJP government is moving towards establishing an authoritarian dominance in Parliament by terrifying, terrorizing, tormenting, and tyrannizing the Opposition," Singhvi said while addressing the reporters here.
Calling the government a "control and command freak," the leader said that there was nothing in either leader's remark that merited such a move.
"Not a word stated therein justifies the use of the power of expunction. You can ask for the text if not already with you and see that there is no use of unparliamentary language, no expletive, no debasement of any institution, and no objectionable or abusive word or phrase. There is absolutely nothing which is remotely defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified in those addresses," he said adding that Rahul Gandhi and Kharge spoke extremely politely and respectfully and based their addresses on factual narratives.
He also said that the BJP does not want the parliament to run through consensus, collaboration, and concordance, but through clash, chaos, and conflict.
Calling Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar as "custodians and defenders of freedom of speech inside the Houses" Singhvi said that unless "free, frank and fearless discussion is allowed to take place within the two Houses of Parliament, democracy is fundamentally and irreversibly imperiled".
"Without their robust shield, the spirit of healthy parliamentary discussion and debate will perish. Freedom of speech is the foundation of our Constitution and even more so within the legislature. Each one of us has to defend the right to free speech on the floor of the two Houses. If the two Houses cease to be a space for free speech, then we will no longer be able to call ourselves a democracy," he added.