New Delhi: The Pegasus snooping controversy rocked the Lok Sabha proceedings on Tuesday, leading to continued disruptions and repeated adjournments of the House.
In the Rajya Sabha too, members of Opposition parties, who had given as many as 15 notices under Rule 267, raised slogans and rushed into the Well of the House, prompting chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn the proceedings till noon.
However, normalcy returned on the second day of the Monsoon Session and the Upper House held a discussion on the COVID-19 situation in the country after Naidu met the floor leaders of various parties. This came after the proceedings of a day and a half were washed out due to disruptions.
Soon after the Lok Sabha assembled at 3 pm, the Opposition members again started raising slogans on the Pegasus snooping issue, forcing the chair to adjourn the House for the day.
The Lok Sabha will now meet on Thursday after the Eid holiday.
This was the second day of the Monsoon Session that the House could not transact any legislative business. On Monday, the Opposition had disrupted the proceedings over a variety of issues, including price rise and three farm laws.
Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned twice after the Opposition created a ruckus over snooping and other issues.
Opposition members, including from the Congress and the TMC, started raising slogans and showing placards to attack the government on the snooping issue as soon as the House met for the day at 11 am.
The proceedings lasted for barely five minutes. The same scene was witnessed when the House reassembled at 2 pm.
Speaker Om Birla said it is not right to disrupt the House and the government is ready to give answers on any matter.
"Please go back to your seats. I will facilitate a debate on every issue. (But) sloganeering is not right.
The government is ready to debate on whatever issues you want to debate on," he said.
The issue of "snooping" using the Pegasus spyware has snowballed into a massive political row in Parliament and outside as various parties are demanding a thorough investigation and sacking of Home minister Amit Shah, while the government maintains that it had nothing to do with it.
Sources said after the Upper House was adjourned for the second time for the day at noon, Naidu called Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, Opposition leaders Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Derek O'Brien, Tiruchi Siva and some others, and decided to resume normal functioning with a discussion on Covid management. The House resumed the discussion at 1 pm.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan were also present at the meeting.
Expressing concern over the repeated disruptions in the House, Naidu stressed the need for normalcy to return in the House so that all the important issues can be discussed in an orderly manner.
Earlier, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the government, just like demonetisation, didn't prepare for a Covid-induced lockdown, and it should be held accountable for this. Kharge also added that during state elections, it was the Central leadership that broke its own rules by flouting Covid-19 norms.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said the Centre never asked any state to record fewer deaths or cases.
"Centre compiles and publishes the data sent in by state governments. Our work is to publish that data and nothing else. We haven't told anyone to show fewer numbers (of deaths) or less positive cases. There's no reason for that," Mandaviya said during a discussion.
Four COVID-19 vaccine candidates are at different stages of human trials while one, developed by Genique Life Sciences, is in the advanced pre-clinical stage, Union Science and Technology minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday.
In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said Cadila Healthcare Ltd's DNA-based vaccine candidate is in phase three clinical trial. It has also submitted the interim data for emergency use authorisation.
Biological E Ltd's vaccine candidate is also in phase three clinical trial.
Bharat Biotech International Ltd's Adeno intranasal vaccine candidate is in phase three clinical trial, while Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd's mRNA-vaccine candidate is in Phase one clinical trial.
The Gurgaon-based Genique Life Sciences Pvt Ltd's vaccine candidate is in the advanced pre-clinical stage, Singh said.
Currently, three vaccines — Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Russian vaccine Sputnik V — are being administered in India.