The BJP fielded Parvesh Verma on Monday in the Lok Sabha to start the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address.

The choice stood out for two reasons: a few hours before Parvesh was deployed in the House, several women had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing some BJP leaders of using “fear of rape as a campaign message” for the Delhi polls. The letter specifically named Parvesh because of his allegation that the protesters seen at Shaheen Bagh would enter homes to rape and kill.

Second, the Election Commission had barred Parvesh from campaigning for the elections for 96 hours from 5pm on Thursday to 5pm on Monday.

Around 2pm, Parvesh stood in the Lok Sabha and sought to deliver a fiery speech on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which the BJP has been using to polarise voters in Delhi. He also referred to Shaheen Bagh.

Technically, Parvesh was debating the motion of thanks but Delhi voters cannot be faulted if they assumed that they were listening to a campaign speech.

Two references made by Parvesh in the House were expunged.

He also said that at the Shaheen Bagh protests, slogans to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah were raised. “‘PM aur home minister ko maar denge’; ‘Jihad chahiye’; ‘Hume Jinnah-wali azadi chahiye’; ‘Pakistan zindabad’ ke naare lag rahe hai,” Parvesh said, accusing the AAP and the Congress of backing the protest.

Both Houses of Parliament were in uproar on Monday over the amended citizenship law and the nationwide protests against it, with the Opposition chastising the government for the instances of firing on peaceful demonstrations.

The Lok Sabha Opposition stood in the well of the House chanting “Save our India”, “Save the Constitution” and “Goli marna bandh karo (Stop shooting)”.

The Opposition members staged a walkout after the government underlined its brazenness by fielding Parvesh.

As soon as the Lok Sabha had assembled for Question Hour, members of the Congress, DMK and some other parties were in the well with placards, shouting slogans.

Trinamul Congress members remained seated despite their vehement opposition to the CAA, the National Population Register and the proposed National Register of Citizens, seeking to distance themselves from the rest of the Opposition.

As junior minister Anurag Thakur stood up to reply to a question on the economy, Opposition members began chanting “Goli marna bandh karo” --- an allusion to his act of leading the chanting of “Shoot the traitors” at an election rally in Delhi.

Thakur had been handed a three-day ban, which ended on Sunday, from campaigning for the “goli” slogan, which has been blamed for a self-proclaimed Ram devotee’s act of shooting at a Jamia Millia Islamia student on Thursday.

Allowed to speak for some time during Zero Hour, Congress House leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that peaceful protesters were being fired at. He said the people cannot be silenced with “goli” and called the BJP “nakli (sham) Hindu”.

Speaker Om Birla did not allow Chowdhury to speak further, saying the House had debated the citizenship amendment at length when it was taken up for passage, and the Opposition could therefore not raise it again.

The government said the Opposition could raise any issue during the discussion over the motion of thanks to the President’s address but not disturb the House.

In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu refused the Opposition demand for suspending business to discuss the citizenship regime, prompting leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to ask why Rule 267 existed if it was not to be used.

Naidu said the matter could be debated when the House took up the motion of thanks to the President’s address, since the speech had referred to the citizenship amendment.

Bahujan Samaj Party member Satish Chandra Mishra, one of the MPs who had submitted the notice for suspension of business, said: “This is an issue that cannot be taken up during the discussion on the President’s address. It is very important.’’

The other parties to submit notices under Rule 267 were the Congress, Trinamul, CPM and the CPI.

With their notices rejected, Opposition members refused to accept requests from the Chair and the treasury benches to allow the motion of thanks debate to proceed.

They picketed the well and chanted slogans through the frequent adjournments in an echo of the protests being led by women and students on the streets.