Opposition protests rock proceedings on day two, both Houses adjourned

NEW DELHI: The second day of the ongoing Winter session of Parliament witnessed protests by Opposition members with both the Houses failing to transact any significant business.

Opposition members who were pressing for discussions on allegations of irregularities against the Adani Group, Sambhal violence and other issues continued with their vociferous protests which rocked both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The two Houses were adjourned once in the morning and later for the day amid continuing uproar by Opposition members.

Soon after the Lok Sabha met, Speaker Om Birla took up the Question Hour, but adjourned the House proceedings following sloganeering by the Opposition members.

They wanted to discuss the allegations of irregularities against the Adani group and the recent violence in Sambhal during a court-ordered survey of a mosque. They trooped into the Well of the House raising slogans as soon as the House met again at 12 noon.

BJP member Dilip Saikia, who was in the chair, adjourned the proceedings for the day after official papers were laid on the table.

In Rajya Sabha, the trouble started after Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected 18 notices under a rule of the House to suspend scheduled business to take up issues including the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue.

The proceedings were briefly adjourned due to opposition protests, and when the House re-assembled at 11.30 AM, there were identical scenes, prompting Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to adjourn the proceedings for the day.

The notices related to the demand for the “constitution of a JPC to investigate the alleged misconduct, including corruption, bribery, financial irregularities of the Adani Group in connivance with other authorities”, violence in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and “rising” incidents of crime in the national capital.

Only Congress members demanded a discussion under Rule 267 after the suspension of the house business, on setting up a joint parliamentary committee to probe allegations against the Adani group, while other opposition parties gave similar notices on different issues.

“The Upper House needs to reflect and follow well-established traditions that ruling of the Chair requires reference and not cause differences. I have, in detail, given reasons why, in these situations, notices are not being accepted,” Dhankhar said while rejecting the notices under Rule 267 of the House.

He emphasised that the House needs to reflect and follow well-established traditions that a ruling of the Chair requires “deference and not (be a) cause of differences”.

While rejecting the notices, Dhankhar also stressed that there will be occasions to raise these issues in accordance with rules.

The Congress members who had given the notices were G C Chandrashekhar, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Syed Naseer Hussain, Neeraj Dangi, Renuka Chowdhury, Rajeev Shukla, Pramod Tiwari, Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Jebi Mather Hisham.

However, Sanjay Singh of AAP gave a notice for adjourning all other business of the House to discuss the “increasing crimes in Delhi”.

Sushmita Dev (TMC), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Raghav Chadha (AAP) and Sandosh Kumar P (CPI) had given separate notices under the same rule for discussion on violence in Manipur, while John Brittas (CPI-M), A A Rahim (CPI-M), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) and Abdul Wahab (IUML) gave notices to discuss the recent violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. with agency inputs