Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas was summoned by Vice President of India and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar over an article critical of Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Indian Express reported that Brittas has also been served a show-cause notice by Rajya Sabha Secretariat.
Brittas was summoned on complaint made by P Sudheer, the general secretary of the BJP’s Kerala unit, against the CPI(M) leader’s article titled Perils of Propoganda, published in The Indian Express on February 20.
In the article, the left MP had argued that Amit Shah’s “periodic outbursts” against Kerala were “proof of his desperation as well as his attempt to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and rewind this country to the past, with the Manu Smriti replacing the Constitution”. He was criticising Shah’s remarks that only Hindutva party could keep Karnataka safe. “There is Kerala near you. I don’t want to say much,” the home minister had said.
Meanwhile, Brittas said that summoning him was an attempt to silence MPs critical of the BJP.
“Yes, I was called for a meeting over an article I wrote and I explained sufficiently my position on the issue,” he said, PTI reported. “I told the Rajya Sabha chairman that writing the article was my fundamental right and part of my freedom of expression. If a cryptic remark can be made on Kerala, I am fully free to respond.”
