Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament were adjourned for day amid uproar by the Opposition and Treasury benches over the Opposition’s charges against the government over the US indictment of Gautam Adani and the government’s charges against the Opposition on colluding with “deep state” actors like billionaire philanthropist George Sosors.
Last week, Parliament functioned properly for only two days -- Tuesday and Wednesday.
In what seemed like action replays of most days in this Winter session, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were first adjourned till noon, and then for the day on Tuesday.
As soon as the Lok Sabha met, Speaker Om Birla talked about the repeated disruptions of proceedings over the past few days due to protests by the members.
He said the House has its own respect, high standard and dignity and no one should try to lower these.
"Ours is the largest democracy in the world and it fulfils the hopes and aspirations of the people. We all have to maintain the dignity of the House. But I have seen that in the last few days certain things have happened which were not good," he said.
“Parliament is a sacred place and this place has a very high dignity, prestige and decorum. We have also achieved Independence in this place. Agreement and disagreement has been the tradition of our democracy. I request you that we should maintain dignity, for the last few days I have been seeing that the kind of slogans, posters and masks being used in the Parliament premises are not only indecent but are also against the Parliamentary process and tradition. I have to say with regret that the behavior of the opposition leaders is inappropriate in this," he said.
He said it was noticed that even senior leaders took part in these incidents, which was not good.
At this, Arjun Ram Meghwal, the Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs, said the Opposition should tender an apology for its behaviour.
"Be it Opposition or ruling party members, everyone should maintain dignity and work in such a way that a positive message goes out of this temple of democracy," Birla said.
The Speaker said agreement and disagreement are part of the healthy democratic process and both sides should sit across the table and iron out their differences.
He said Question Hour, the first hour of the daily business of the House, is very important and everyone should try and ensure it is held smoothly.
After this, Birla started Question Hour.
Immediately, the Opposition members were on their feet, seeking to raise their issues.
"You don't want to run the House? Please allow the House to function normally," the Speaker said.
The Opposition MPs ignored his pleas, leading to Birla adjourning the House till 12 noon. When the House met again, the same scenes repeated, leading to adjournment for the day.
In the Rajya Sabha as well, members from both sides raised slogans in support of the issues they wanted to raise. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar adjourned the proceedings till 12noon.
No sooner were the obituary references and listed official papers laid on the table, Dhankhar mentioned that he has received five notices under rule 267 that seeks to set aside the listed agenda of the day to discuss the issue being raised.
The first notice was from Sanjay Singh of AAP. The moment Dhankhar mentioned his name, Singh was up on his feet stating his notice was on the bomb threats 40 schools received in the national capital.
Ruling MPs were also up on their feet raising slogans but nothing could be heard in the din.
Dhankhar pleaded with members to allow him to at least mention the names of four other MPs who had given the other notices under rule 267 but neither side was relenting.
Since Monday, the ruling BJP MPs have been trying to raise the issue of alleged nexus between US hedge fund tycoon George Soros the Congress posing a threat to national security.
Amid sloganeering, Dhankhar allowed Derek O'Brien of the Trinamul to raise a point of order. But as Derek O'Brien got up to speak, the chairman adjourned the proceedings till noon.
When the House reconvened, it was adjourned for the day.
"The House is not running, and the government is deliberately not running the House, or they are unable, incapable to do so,” Congress Lok Sabha MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told PTI Videos.
“It is their strategy... they are afraid of discussion over Adani. I am new to Parliament and it is strange that the PM has not come here, it's been 10 days of this session," she added.
Deputy leader of Opposition and Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi hurled the same charge: “The government has shown that they want to run away from the House. We (Opposition) are ready to cooperate in running the House.”
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also said: "It is very clear that BJP has no desire to run the House. It looks like they wish to avoid the debate. I think it is very clear that they have decided to write the session off because today there was no provocation from the opposition, they went ahead and adjourned without any provocation.”
Journalist-turned Rajya Sabha member from the Trinamul, Sagarika Ghose said: "For the first time in history, the government itself is not allowing the House to function. The Modi government is murdering Parliament.”
Congress Lok Sabha member K.C Venugopal said the Opposition was “pleading to the Speaker and government to, at least, run the House. Within 30 seconds, they adjourned the House. This is a clear decision of government not to run the House.”
Earlier in the day, several Opposition MPs demonstrated over the Adani issue in Parliament premises, carrying black 'jholas' (bags) with caricatures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani printed on it and 'Modi Adani Bhai Bhai' written on the obverse side.
This is the latest in the series of unusual protests led by the Congress daily ahead of the sitting of Parliament in the morning.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, MPs from the Congress, DMK, JMM, Left, among others, protested in front of the Makar Dwar steps.
