‘You are under pressure from BJP’: Congress women MPs write to Speaker Om Birla over PM Modi's absence from House

Female Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha petitioned Speaker Om Birla on Monday, asserting that under pressure from the BJP, to justify the "non-attendance" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he levelled serious accusations against them.

They implored the Speaker to serve as a neutral guardian of the Lower House. The letter to the Speaker follows days after Birla claimed in the House that he possessed "concrete information" that several Congress lawmakers would advance toward PM Modi's bench and perform "some unexpected act" as a consequence of which he had advised him not to visit the House to respond to the debate on the Motion of Thanks for the President's speech.

"We are being targeted simply because we have consistently fought against Prime Minister Narender Modi's anti-people government and demanded accountability from him. His absence from the House was not due to any threat from us, it was an act of fear," said the letter signed by MPs like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jyothimani, R Sudha, Varsha Gaikwad and Jyotsna Mahant.

"He (PM) did not have the courage to face the Opposition. We are Members of Parliament from the Indian National Congress, a party that stands for love, peace, constitutional values, and human dignity. We do not believe in violence and intimidation. We are brave women elected representatives who will not be silenced by intimidation," the Congress' women MPs said.

"We believe that transparency is the only way to restore the dignity of the Speaker's office and the credibility of this House," they said.

"However, it is amply clear that you are under sustained pressure from the ruling party. We urge you once again to act as the impartial custodian of the Lok Sabha. We will stand with you and support you wholeheartedly in this endeavour," the women MPs said.

"Let history remember you as one who stood for what was right in the most trying circumstances and upheld constitutional propriety for the good of the nation. Let it not remember you as one who bowed to pressure from those who leave no stone unturned in subverting constitutional values and damaging the democratic fabric of our nation," they said.

The women MPs further said they are writing to Birla with deep anguish and a strong sense of constitutional responsibility.

"It is extremely unfortunate that you, as the Hon'ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the constitutional custodian of this august house, have been forced by the ruling party to make: false, baseless, and defamatory allegations against women Members of Parliament belonging to the Opposition, particularly from the Indian National Congress," the MPs said.