July 24, 2025: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government of silencing the Opposition in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
She stated that the government ought to agree to the Opposition's request to permit discussions in Parliament. During the most recent Budget Session, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also accused the Treasury benches of orchestrating disruptions in Parliament to silence opposition voices. "The Opposition leaders are not permitted to speak whenever they wish to do so. We have requested discussions; they ought to concur. I was surprised to see that the treasury benches were the first to cause trouble during the previous session. They would select a topic for us to respond to, then there would be a hungama and the House would be adjourned. "It is perfectly fitting them," the Congress MP stated. In the meantime, Sonia Gandhi, chair of the Congress parliamentary party, attended the Opposition bloc INDIA protest in the Parliament House complex against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's voter rolls. Since the beginning of the current Monsoon Parliament session, opposition MPs have been calling for the EC's SIR move in Bihar to be reversed. Additionally, the opposition has demanded that the matter be discussed in both houses. Top opposition leaders and MPs, including those from the Congress, DMK, TMC, Samajwadi Party, JMM, RJD, and Left parties, gathered outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament before the start of the day's business and chanted slogans against the government and the SIR of electoral rolls. Top leaders from Congress, including Sonia Gandhi, general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K C Venugopal, and other Opposition leaders, Samajwadi Party's Ziaur Rahman Barq, TMC's Kirti Azad, DMK's A Raja, among others, raised slogans like "Save democracy" and "Stop vote-bandi".
As they stood in line on the steps of the Makar Dwar of Parliament and staged a protest for the third day in a row, a huge banner with the words "SIR - Loktantra par Vaar" was displayed in front of them. The Opposition has been protesting in both houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at disenfranchising voters in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections.