New Delhi: A delegation of 70 Congress MPs met the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday (March 26) to raise the denial of opportunity to leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi to speak in the House. The delegation included deputy leader of Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, party general secretary K.C. Venugopal and the party’s chief whip in the house, Manickam Tagore.The meeting came after Birla, while adjourning the House at 1 pm following the zero hour, said that Gandhi should follow the rules of the House. Gandhi said that he wanted to speak after Birla’s statement but the Speaker “ran away”.“It is expected from all of you that you maintain the dignity of the House. I have noticed several instances where the conduct of members have not been upto the dignity of the House,” said Birla at the end of the zero hour.“In this House, father and daughter, mother and daughter, husband and wife have been members. In this context, I expect the Leader of the Opposition to conduct himself in accordance with Rule 349 that deals with rules to be observed by members in the House. I urge the leader of opposition to abide by the dignity and rules of the House,” he said adjourning the House till 2pm.While Birla did not elaborate on why he made the remarks, Gandhi later said to reporters outside parliament that the House is being run in an undemocratic manner and accused the Speaker of running away.“After he said that, I said as leader of opposition let me speak. But he just ran away. I don’t understand what is going on. This is no way to run the House. The Speaker just got up and left. And that too after the Speaker said something unsubstantiated. I said let me speak since you have said something about me but he turned around and left and adjourned the House,” he said.“There is a convention that the leader of the opposition is allowed to speak. Whenever I stand to speak, I am not allowed. We don’t know how the House is functioning. We are not being allowed to say what we want.“I haven’t done anything, I was sitting silently. I did not speak a word. In the last 7-8 days I have not been allowed to speak. I have not said anything. In a democracy there is space for government and the opposition but here there is no space for the opposition. The other day when the prime minister spoke about the Kumbh Mela, I wanted to speak on unemployment but was not allowed. I don’t know what the thinking and approach of the Speaker is but the truth is we are not being allowed to speak. It (House) is being run in an absolute non-democratic style,” he added.
