Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has invoked Rule 357, stating that he has the right to respond in Parliament to the “totally baseless” and “unfair charges” hurled at him by senior ministers in the Lok Sabha over his democracy remarks.

In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Gandhi also cited the example of BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, who invoked the Rule to give an explanation regarding Jyotiraditya Scindia’s comments on him in Parliament. “I am making such a request again. I am seeking this permission under the conventions of Parliamentary practice, the constitutionally embedded rules of natural justice and Rule 357 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha,” he said in his letter to the Speaker.