First time in India's history, govt is disrupting Parliament: Priyanka

Congress MP and general-secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday launched a stinging attack on the BJP-led government, accusing it of actively obstructing the functioning of Parliament, saying the repeated disruptions in the Lok Sabha were being engineered to prevent scrutiny — not by the Opposition, but by the ruling party itself.

Speaking to reporters after the House was adjourned following uproar over remarks by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, Priyanka said the controversy over an allegedly “unpublished” book was being cynically used to muzzle Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, while allowing government MPs free rein.

“When the government wants the House to be disrupted, he is made to stand up,” she said, referring to Dubey. “This happens every day.”

She said the Opposition’s repeated requests to speak were systematically blocked. “His Zero Hour always comes in the ballot. We keep requesting, but it does not come,” she said, alleging that speaking opportunities were being selectively allocated to serve the government’s political purpose.

At the centre of the confrontation was the BJP’s objection to Rahul Gandhi referring to Four Stars of Destiny, the memoir of former Army chief M.M. Naravane, during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address. BJP members claimed the book was “unpublished” and therefore could not be cited in the House.

Priyanka called the argument disingenuous. “We request permission for the Leader of the Opposition to quote from a publicly published book that has been bought from Amazon,” she said. “You say it is against the rules. And this person (Dubey) gets up, quotes from books, and his microphone remains on.”

She said the contrast exposed the government’s real objective. “This is meant to show that only the government’s writ prevails in Parliament,” she said. “This is an insult to the Speaker, to Parliament, to democracy, and to the people of this country.”

As Dubey continued to brandish books and make attacks on the Gandhi family, Om Birla’s earlier ruling disallowing such remarks was eventually cited by the Chair, then occupied by Krishna Prasad Tenneti. By then, however, the House had already descended into disorder and was adjourned till 5.00 pm.

Priyanka rejected the suggestion that the Opposition was responsible for the disruption. “We are not here to waste our time,” she said. “We are not here to create drama.” Emphasising the seriousness of the issue, she added, “We are here because the people of this country have given us their precious vote.”

Taking aim directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka contrasted the present leadership with that of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

“Indira Gandhi never stepped back from taking decisions,” she said. “She did not sit in a room and say, ‘I will not take a decision.’ She came forward, she took responsibility, and Pakistan was split into two. But the way Narendra Modi is functioning today, that is not how a country is run,” she said.

She went further, making a sweeping charge rarely articulated so explicitly in parliamentary confrontations. “This will be the first time in this country’s history that a government is disrupting the House,” she said. “A government does not want Parliament to function.”

According to Priyanka, the attempt to block references to Naravane’s memoir went beyond procedural technicalities and touched on accountability over national security decision-making.

She pointed to reported passages describing a gap of several hours during the Chinese incursion into Ladakh in 2020 before the Army was told to “do as you think best”, suggesting that the government was uncomfortable with parliamentary discussion of that episode.

“Every citizen of this country should understand this,” she said. “This is a very serious matter.”

She also dismissed the BJP’s repeated invocation of Congress-era leaders during the debate as deflection. “Again they bring up Jawaharlal Nehru — this obsession never ends,” she said.

Congress MPs later met Speaker Birla to protest what they described as selective enforcement of parliamentary rules. For the party, the episode has become emblematic of a larger charge: that the government is not merely dominating Parliament, but deliberately paralysing it whenever debate threatens to pierce its political narrative.

With PTI inputs