Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has accused the Modi government of “throttling the media” by stopping advertisements to media houses that question the government. Chowdhury raised the issue during Zero Hour but Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla switched off Chowdhury’s mike as he’d gone “beyond the approved part of the text”, The Telegraph reports, which led to protests from Congress members.

According to Telegraph, Chowdhury said: “The media is being throttled. Advertisements are being stopped. Their fault is that they raised their voice against the government. Is it a crime to raise one’s voice against the government? This is a democratic country. The freedom of expression and freedom of the press are so important that everybody must stand up to protect these basic rights.”

Chowdhury named The Hindu, The Telegraph and The Times of India in his speech, saying the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity had been ordered to stop giving them advertisements.

The Hindu reported that Chowdhury said the government was being “undemocratic” and “suffered from megalomania”.