Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar appears to have gone back on his year-old promise to allow four members of the House, including leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, to speak any time they want.

On Thursday and Friday, Kharge sought several times to speak on Wednesday’s security breach, which involved two men jumping into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery and releasing yellow smoke from canisters.

Dhankhar, however, did not give him an opportunity to do so. Instead, he invited Kharge to his chamber on Friday to give him a hearing, an offer the Congress MP rejected.

On December 9 last year, Dhankhar had said that whenever Kharge, leader of the House Piyush Goyal and former Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh wished to speak in the House, they would be allowed to do so immediately.

Since Thursday, members from the Opposition bloc INDIA have been demanding a statement on the security breach from Union home minister Amit Shah, followed by a discussion on the subject under Rule 267, which mandates the suspension of all listed business. Dhankhar has rejected the demands.

As the House assembled on Friday and Dhankhar rejected the Opposition’s demands again, Kharge raised his hand to speak. The Chairman ignored him.

Congress member Jairam Ramesh asked Dhankhar to allow Kharge to speak, but he too was ignored.

As the Opposition members protested the rejection of their demands, the Chairman adjourned proceedings till 2pm after inviting Kharge, Goyal and the floor leaders of political parties to a meeting in his chamber. Kharge did not attend it.

At 2pm, Kharge again raised his hand and Ramesh pleaded with the Chairman to allow Kharge to speak. “The home minister is going to TV studios but he cannot come here,” Ramesh said.

Dhankhar again ignored them and quickly adjourned the House till Monday.

Neither Shah nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attended Parliament since Thursday despite Opposition demands to come and answer questions on Wednesday’s incident.

On Thursday, Shah alleged at a media house conclave that the Opposition was playing politics on the issue.

It’s a convention that the government informs Parliament first when any major decision is taken or a major statement is made during a Parliament session.

In a post on X, Ramesh wrote: “It is characteristic of his sheer arrogance that the Home Minister found time yesterday evening to talk to a TV channel on the serious security breach in Parliament on December 13th, but is refusing to make a statement in Parliament itself while it is in session.”

On December 9 last year, Dhankhar had said in the Rajya Sabha: “We have two very distinguished people in the House by way of their designation: the leader of the House (and) the leader of the Opposition. We have the former Prime Minister.

“I have declared on the floor of this House that these three honourable gentlemen --- one of them is not here, Dr Manmohan Singh -- if they rise, I will not look at the rulebook. I said so in your presence, and all of you have access to them.”

While the Chairman had referred to “three honourable gentlemen”, he is understood to have meant both the former Prime Ministers, Singh and Deve Gowda, along with Goyal and Kharge.