The Trinamool Congress has slammed the BJP Government for its “ridiculous interpretation” of “unparliamentary” words wondering whether India was better off during the British rule than in Narendra Modi’s time.
Terming the Government’s ban on certain words as “ridiculous” TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday “if the Government will decide as to which word should be used as words of protest then where is the need of running the parliament … where is the need of electing MPs … then why don’t they run show without the Opposition.”
Asserting that “Indians enjoyed more freedom during the British period than during the BJP regime,” he said, “nothing could be more dictatorial than this … when the Government decides what the people will eat, what they will wear, what they will speak, where they will work and how they will work then you have no doubt that you are in an era worse than Emergency.”
Attacking the Prime Minister for using words like “Andolanjeevi,” Banerjee said “when he uses such words there is no problem but when the opposition uses the word Jumlajeevi then it becomes unparliamentary.”
Questioning the sense behind the banning of words like corrupt, dictatorial, jumla, he said “no decision can be more dictatorial than robbing your right to freedom of expression … this is being done because you know that you will take a number of autocratic decisions in days to come … and to stop the opposition from exposing you in parliament you are banning such words.”
On the issue of angry lion as national emblem atop the new parliament building Banerjee said “it is not only the question of the angry lion” which very much expressed the government’s aggressive stance to all kind of opposition “but also it is the issue of usurping all the powers and grabbing all the limelight at the cost of established parliamentary norms.”
He asked “why the President of India was not given to inaugurate the national emblem because it is he who summons the both Houses of Parliament … he is the supreme executive of the country … is the respect you have for the President.”
Questioning why the Prime Minister and not the President was given to inaugurate the Ayodhya Ram Temple he wondered whether there was that inherent dislike for the scheduled castes involved in not inviting a single member from the SC community at Ayodhya.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien too attacked the government for trying to gag the opposition.