Rahul Gandhi's Comments About Democracy Caused Both Houses Of Parliament To Adjourn

The government has ordered Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to apologise for asking the US and other European countries to intervene in India's "disappearing" democracy. As a result, the sessions of both houses of Parliament have been suspended for the remainder of the day. After an earlier adjournment, the Upper House reconvened at 2 pm, and Union Minister and Leader of the House Piyush Goyal reaffirmed the government's position that Gandhi must retract his remarks. Although the Congress-led opposition carried placards with quotes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks during his foreign trips, members of the BJP chanted slogans in the Lok Sabha calling for Rahul Gandhi to apologise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his top ministers earlier in the day, including Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal. At the Parliament the list of ministers included Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijiju, Nitin Singh Tomar, and Anurag Thakur. 16 opposition party leaders met this morning in the Parliament premises and resolved to increase their demand for a JPC on the Adani issue.

A day after criticising its senior leader and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi over his comments in London that "democracy" is being attacked in India, the Congress party today served Piyush Goyal with a notice for raising a breach of privilege against him. Goyal is a union minister and the leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha. Goyal claimed on Monday that a prominent member of the Opposition had shamelessly insulted India's democracy abroad without mentioning Gandhi by name. On foreign soil, he claimed, the Opposition Leader had insulted the Indian Army, Indian Parliament, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Election Commission, the courts, and the media.

In response to the Opposition's complaint that its members were not permitted to express their opinions in the House, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar interjected. Some of the Opposition leaders said that the Chairman frequently interrupted them and prevented them from speaking in the House during a meeting Dhankhar conducted with the floor leaders on Sunday. Dhankhar claimed that he had never prevented a member from speaking in the House in accordance with applicable rules, save from refusing notices under Rule 267 asking for the suspension of all business to take up talks.

Goyal further said the leader of the opposition should apologise for saying that someone is in charge of the EC, security services, media, and judiciary.