Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas was summoned by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar over an article critical of Home Minister Amit Shah, PTI reported on Sunday. The vice president also holds the post of chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Brittas was summoned on complaint made by P Sudheer, the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kerala unit, against the CPI(M) leader’s article published in The Indian Express on February 20. Unidentified officials in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat told The Indian Express that Brittas has also been served a show-cause notice.

In the article, titled Perils of Propoganda, the MP had criticised Shah’s remarks that only his party could keep Karnataka safe. “There is Kerala near you. I don’t want to say much,” the home minister had said.

Brittas had written that 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 added that Kerala had “tirelessly resisted” the saffron party.

In his complaint, Sudheer had described Brittas’ article as “highly divisive and polarising” and demanded action against “the seditious conduct of the member of Rajya Sabha”, according to The Indian Express.

On Saturday, 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, according to PTI. “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.”

The MP told The Telegraph that the entire sequence of events was “something unheard of in the history of India”.

“I was shocked at the entire process of a ruling party functionary filing such a complaint and the Rajya Sabha secretariat and chairman taking cognisance of that,” he said. “This entire process has absolutely shocked and baffled me.”