‘Targeted for demanding accountability from PM’: Congress women MPs reject allegations in letter to LS Speaker

Six women MPs belonging to the Congress party on Monday wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, calling allegations levelled against them with regard to the security of the Prime Minister as “false, baseless, and defamatory”.

Raising serious questions with regard to the authority of the Lok Sabha Speaker under the current NDA regime, the women MPs suggested the Modi government was pressurising Om Birla to act in an unfair manner.

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“We write this letter with deep anguish and a strong sense of constitutional responsibility. It is extremely unfortunate that you, as the 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 letter written by six women MPs belonging to the Congress, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and S Jothimani.

The MPs wrote in the letter that, according to parliamentary convention, both the ruling party and the opposition are allowed to speak during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, after which the PM delivers his customary reply.

“Yet, for the past four consecutive days, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, has been deliberately denied this opportunity in the Lok Sabha. This is unprecedented and indefensible,” the MPs wrote.

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‘Lok Sabha Speaker’s authority compromised’

They also pointed in the letter addressed to Birla that eight INDIA alliance MPs were suspended at the behest of the ruling party, while a BJP MP was allowed to speak in the House in a vulgar and obscene manner about former PMs.

The MPs wrote in the letter that when the matter of the said BJP MP was mentioned, the Speaker accepted that a grave mistake had been committed, but later said he was awaiting the government’s response on the same.

Women Parliamentarians of the Congress Party write a letter to Lok Sabha Om Birla regarding “baseless allegations against women Members of Parliament and the denial of the Opposition’s Parliamentary Rights”

“We write this letter with deep anguish and a strong sense of… pic.twitter.com/gwdx2uNkyt

— ANI (@ANI) February 9, 2026

“This indicates you are no longer the decision maker in such matters. This raises serious questions regarding your authority as Speaker of the House,” the MPs wrote.

Speaking about the PM’s failure to speak in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday evening, the MPs said the ruling party clearly pressurised the Speaker to defend the non-appearance of the PM and “you (Speaker Birla) issued a statement making grave allegations against the women MPs of the Congress Party.”

‘Attack on every woman’

The women MPs asserted that their protests have been “unrelentingly peaceful, firm, and entirely within democratic norms.” Questioning our integrity is a grievous attack on every woman who earns her place in public life with dignity and courage, they added.

The women MPs claimed that they are being targeted for demanding accountability from the PM, who, they alleged, was absent from the Lok Sabha “not due to any threat from us” but out of “fear”.

“He did not have the courage to face the Opposition,” the MPs wrote.

Calling on the Speaker to act as the impartial custodian of the House, the MPs concluded by saying, “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.”