AAP's Chadha on lawmakers' criminal cases & exclusion

MP Raghav Chadha of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), requested a debate on the Centre's purported efforts to silence political rivals by filing baseless criminal charges against them all over the nation and barring them from serving as elected officials on Monday.

Chadha in his letter to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said that “I hereby give notice under Rule 267 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) of my intention to move the following motion for suspension of business listed for 27th March 2023.”

"That this House do suspend Zero Hour and relevant rules relating to Question Hour and other businesses of the day to discuss the attempts being made by the ruling dispensation to eliminate political opponents through frivolous criminal cases across the country, disqualifying them as elected representatives and putting prominent members from the opposition behind bars in order to suppress the voice of the opposition,” he continued.

The AAP leader's letter comes only days after Rahul Gandhi, a Congressman, was expelled from the Lok Sabha after being found guilty of slander.

Gandhi was given a two-year prison term earlier on Thursday in a criminal defamation case stemming from his statement in 2019 that "why all robbers had Modi surname." Afterwards, the Congress leader received bail and was given 30 days to file an appeal with a higher court.