NEW DELHI: The first part of the budget session of India’s Rajya Sabha was adjourned till March 13 on Monday after continued disruptions by Opposition MPs who kept up their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into allegations against the Adani Group. The House, which was briefly adjourned in the morning, will now meet at 11 am on March 13 after recess.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who spoke about deliberate obstruction of proceedings, adjourned the House for the day after repeated appeals to bring order unheeded and Opposition MPs raised slogans in support of their demand for a JPC and also revocation of the suspension of Congress MP Rajani Patil.
”The house stands adjourned, to meet on Monday, March 13, 2023 at 1100 hours,” Dhankhar announced soon after the start of the question hour. Soon after the listed papers were laid on the table of the House, Opposition MPs insisted that the Chair allow Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to speak.
When Dhankhar permitted Kharge to speak, several members from the treasury benches started raising slogans. However, Kharge’s remarks were expunged by the chair.
Opposition MPs too kept raising slogans. Several of them trooped into the Well of the House.
Patil was suspended from the House for the remainder of the Budget session for circulating an unauthorised video of house proceedings. Dhankhar said he was getting sleepless nights because of inputs he had been getting. ”The entire world is watching… it is beyond my comprehension how members can behave like this and attack the Constitution,” he said earlier in the morning as the slogan shouting continued. Asking the Opposition to maintain decorum and allow question hour to continue, he said,
”Does the public expect us to be like this… It does not. ”I am constrained on account of persistent obstruction and I would go to the extent of saying deliberate obstruction…”
He said precious time had been lost already. Before adjourning the House till next month, he warned, ”Members, I am pleading with you for the last time. If the House is subjected to such kind of disturbance, disruption, violation of rules, I will be constrained to act as per expectations of the people.”
Earlier, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari urged the Chair to revoke Patil’s suspension of Rajani Patil in the best tradition of the house and order a JPC probe.
However, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal asked Opposition MPs to first apologise for their behaviour during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech while replying to the Motion of Thanks. Only after that, he said, could the demand for revocation of suspension be considered. This led to more slogan shouting and uproar from Opposition benches, forcing the chair to adjourn the house.
Source: Press Trust of India
