On Friday morning, Congress moved adjournment motions in both Houses, seeking an immediate discussion on paper leaks and suspension of other businesses.However, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla refused to admit it, saying the House was scheduled to discuss the Motion of Thanks on President Draupadi Murmu’s address to the Parliament, prompting an uproar.
Birla adjourned the House amid protests by opposition, Congress shared a video on X, showing Rahul Gandhi requesting Speaker Om Birla for a microphone.
The video showed Rahul Gandhi, leader of opposition, demanding a “respectful” discussion on the NEET issue to show solidarity with the students. As Om Birla objected, Rahul persisted with the demand and said: “We wanted to give a joint message to the students of India, on behalf of the Opposition as well as the government that we consider this an important issue. So, we thought that to respect students, we should have a NEET discussion today, a dedicated discussion.”
Replying to Rahul’s charge, Om Birla said, “I don’t have any button to switch off the microphone. There existed a similar set-up earlier also. There is no mechanism to gag the microphone.”
Sharing the video on X, Congress wrote: “While on one hand, Narendra Modi is not saying anything on NEET, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is raising the voice of the youth in the House. But, on such a serious issue, a conspiracy is being hatched to suppress the voice of the youth by doing cheap acts like switching off the mic.”
The party also claimed that the microphone of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge was switched off in Rajya Sabha by Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Sharing the video of the same on X, Congress said: “The Congress president and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mr @kharge raised the voice of students suffering from paper leak in the country but his mic was switched off. This government is itself silent on the issue of paper leak, but now it also wants to suppress the voices raised against the paper leak.”
Congress MP Deepender Hooda criticised the incident and said the leader of opposition has every right to put forth his point.
“What happened in the House today is very unfortunate. Leader of Opposition Shri @RahulGandhi raised a very important issue of NEET paper leak with full decency in the House. But his mike was switched off in the House, which is not a good parliamentary tradition. The Leader of the Opposition has every right to put forth his point. We demand from the government that this issue should be discussed immediately,” he said.
The Lok Sabha was eventually adjourned by Om Birla. Later, Parliamentary Affairs Minister and BJP leader Kiren Rijiju said Congress didn’t want the House to function.
“… On behalf of the government, we have made it clear that we will give detailed information on whatever issue is raised. We assure the members once again that the Government is always ready for discussion. But by halting the proceedings of the House, the tendency adopted by Congress party – of not letting the House function – is not right…I condemn this. I appeal that those should not happen again.”