As Opposition MP sought to justify the resolution by lamenting that leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak during the last motion of thanks to the President’s address, Jagdambika Pal, who was in the Chair, ceased the opening to point out that Gandhi was not even bothered to be present in the House or speak for himself even when the Opposition resolution was being debated.
Opening the debate, Gogoi said Birla and senior ministers had interrupted the leader of the Opposition “20 times” when the latter spoke in the last session. The ground for the showdown was set when Gogoi continued to question that attitude of the government and said how Gandhi was prevented when he wanted to speak in the last session about an “ongoing investigation in US”, about the attitude of the defence minister during tension at the border with China. Pal then said Gogoi should stick to the subject of the resolution rather than deviating to other issues.
Rijiju intervened: “The resolution on the Speaker is being discussed and we expected him to speak on that. But he has chosen to speak on other issues… We could have opposed it. But I want to say that when we reply, you have to properly listen to us without interruptions.” Gogoi responded, “In future, when the parliamentary records will be researched, there will also be research that will show that the most interrupting Parliament minister during the Opposition speeches was Rijiju.”
This made Shah intervene, “I too have been a parliamentary affairs minister in (Gujarat) legislative assembly. The parliamentary affairs minister has to get up whenever things that are a deviation from the rules of running Parliament take place. I agree that as parliamentary affairs minister, Rijiju has interrupted the most. But the fact is there has never been such an irresponsible Opposition as this one.”
