Opposition parties on Thursday took out a 'tricolour march' from Parliament House to Vijay Chowk, alleging that democracy is under attack from the BJP. Besides the Congress, MPs of DMK, Samajwadi Party, RJD, Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP, NCP and the Left participated in the march.
The opposition parties have upped the ante against the Centre and Prime Minister Modi. They have been unitedly demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue and have raised the matter both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, leading to disruptions of proceedings. The budget session of the parliament ended on Thursday. Thirteen political parties, including the Congress, will skip the tea meeting to be hosted by the Lok Sabha speaker on Thursday evening.
Addressing a press conference after the march, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged the Modi government was causing disruptions in parliament to divert attention from the demand for the JPC probe. He said the government talks a lot about democracy, but it does not follow what it says.
"The budget of Rs 50-lakh crore was passed in just 12 minutes, but they (BJP) always allege that the opposition parties have no interest and they keep disturbing the House," Kharge said. The veteran Congress leader said the government's intention was to get the budget session “washed out”, and added that if this continues, “democracy will be finished and we will move towards dictatorship".
He said the government did not answer on the Adani issue in Parliament and instead diverted attention by demanding Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's apology over his remarks in the UK.
Kharge also raised the issue of Gandhi's disqualification as member of Lok Sabha, saying while he was disqualified at "lightning speed", a BJP MP convicted and given a three-year sentence was not disqualified even after 16 days.
