New Delhi [India], March 12 : Congress leader and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday accused the BJP-led government of trying to suppress the voice of oppositon and said microphone is sometimes turned off.
Participating in debate on opposition resolution for removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, he said tere are "many instances in history and our traditions that teach us the importance of propriety and justice".
"In the Mahabharata, when Duryodhana disrobed Draupadi, it was an insult to proprieties, civilizations, and the entire feminine power. If the people present there had stopped him at that time, the Mahabharata war would not have happened. In Parliament, the opposition's voice is suppressed, the microphone is turned off. This is the disrobing of democracy, the disrobing of the country's democratic proprieties," he alleged.
He said Parliament is not "government's property" but the platform for articulating views of people and asserted that the questions will not stop at the "shutting of the mic."
"This Parliament is not the governemnt's property, it is the platform of the public's voice. Rules should not be used as a shield but for justice. Questions do not end when a mic is stopped in a democracy. The dignity of the assembly is bigger than a person and a position. If this dignity is hampered, the democracy will get weaker," Channi said.
The oppositon resolution was later defeated by voice vote amid sloganeering by opposition over remarks of Home Minister Amit Shah who replied to the debate.
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