The Congress on Wednesday said the Narendra Modi government’s conduct in Parliament was “not good for democracy”, accusing the Centre of violating rules and tradition, disallowing debate on key issues and passing bills without due process.

It said Parliament’s winter session, which abruptly ended a day before the scheduled Thursday closure, had an “undemocratic start” with the debate-less repeal of the farm laws and an “undemocratic end” with the railroading of the bill that allows Aadhaar-linking of the electoral rolls.

The government didn’t allow a single debate that the Opposition had demanded this session, continuing the trend of the last session that was lost to disruption over the demand for a discussion on the Pegasus snooping controversy.

While the Lok Sabha ran smoothly during the winter session, the Rajya Sabha was doomed to turmoil by the suspension of 12 Opposition members, which the Congress on Wednesday described as a ploy to conjure an “artificial majority” for the government.

The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said: “The UPA has 68 MPs while the other Opposition parties have 50 MPs. There are two Independents, making the Opposition total 120. The NDA has 118. The government was afraid of voting in the House and hence created an artificial majority by suspending the MPs.”

Accusing Rajya Sabha Chair M. Venkaiah Naidu of working under government pressure, Kharge said: “I wanted to express regret in the House on behalf of the suspended MPs despite the fault lying with the government, but they were not willing to resolve the issue.”

Kharge added: “The Uttar Pradesh SIT (special investigation team) said the junior home minister’s son was involved in a pre-planned conspiracy to mow down the farmers in Lakhimpur (Kheri). We wanted to debate who was behind this conspiracy. But the government wouldn’t allow a debate.”

Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish has been arrested with 12 others after a Thar jeep belonging to the minister allegedly ran over and killed four farmers and a journalist on October 3. The SIT has said the killings were “pre-planned”.

Kharge said: “The Chairman would adjourn the House in minutes, without the Opposition saying anything. Today, as soon as I got up and wanted to raise the land issue in Ayodhya, the Chairman adjourned the House.”

Another Congress member, Jairam Ramesh, said: “Never in parliamentary history (was) the leader of the Opposition treated in this manner. There is a parliamentary tradition that the leader of the House and the leader of the Opposition are always allowed to speak. This (what the government did) is not good for democracy.”

The Congress’s leader of the Lok Sabha, Adhir Chowdhury, said: “We wanted to run the House. But it is our duty to question the government if the police report says the minister’s son was involved in a pre-planned conspiracy to kill farmers.

“But this government cares for nothing. They don’t want to listen to the Opposition. They have no respect for the principle of accountability. They just run the bulldozer of majority.”

Kharge had wanted to question the government over a media report that suggested several BJP politicians and bureaucrats had made huge profits over the buying and selling of land in Ayodhya.

Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala described the land transactions in Ayodhya as loot.

Rahul Gandhi too tweeted: “Hindu satya ke raaste par chalta hai. Hindutvawadi dharm ki aad mein lootta hai (A Hindu walks the path of truth but Hindutva followers commit looting in the name of religion).”

Ramesh too alleged that the Rajya Sabha suspensions were meant to create a majority.

“They didn’t revoke the suspensions till the end despite sincere efforts by the joint Opposition because they intended to have a majority in the House,” he said.

“They had pushed the dangerous farm laws without discussion 15 months ago. The law to link Aadhaar with voter I-cards is equally dangerous. The poor, minorities, Dalits and tribals will suffer.

“In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 55 lakh voters had been removed from electoral rolls and the Supreme Court had to intervene. Millions will be disenfranchised because of this law now.

“We are sorry to say, the session started undemocratically — repealing the farm laws without discussion — and ended undemocratically, pushing the Aadhaar-voter law without in-depth discussion.”