Deadlock in Parliament continues, both Houses adjourned till March 20

New Delhi: Both the Houses of Parliament were again adjourned for the day on Friday due to slogan shouting by the Opposition and protests by the ruling party members over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “democracy-under-attack” remarks made in London recently. This was the fifth consecutive day that Houses did not function ever since the second half of the Budget Session began on March 13. Both the Houses will meet again on March 20. There are only 14 days of sitting left to clear key legislative business including the Appropriation Bill and to hold debate on key subjects such as Railways and Rural Development.

Proceedings on Sansad TV were mostly inaudible. While Parliament sources said it was the result of a ‘technical glitch’, several Congress leaders alleged that proceedings were “muted” when its MPs raised slogans demanding that Gandhi be allowed to speak, and asked if this was democracy.

As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled for the day, some Congress members trooped to the Well of the House shouting slogans and demanded that Gandhi be allowed to speak in the House.

They also demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into alleged stock manipulation by the Adani Group, a business conglomerate headed by industrialist Gautam Adani.

The members of the treasury benches also raised counter-slogans from their seats, demanding an apology from Gandhi for his remarks.

The turmoil continued for about 20 minutes, with Speaker Om Birla urging the members to allow the House to function smoothly.

The protesting members ignored his pleas, and the speaker adjourned the House for the day.

In a tweet, the Congress alleged that the proceedings were “muted” when its MPs raised slogans demanding that Gandhi be allowed to speak. Is this democracy, the party asked.

Tagging this tweet, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh posted: “Democracy’ in words but ‘dictatorship’ in action.”

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and several other Union ministers were present in the House.

The Rajya Sabha ran for a few minutes with initial calm while tabling papers and the Standing Committee reports. Soon after the listing of papers, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he had received 11 adjournment notices under Rule 267 but disallowed those.

“After carefully going through the issues, the notices, I find, cannot be allowed,” he said.

Thereafter, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge sought to speak but was not allowed, triggering an uproar by the members of the Congress and other opposition parties.

The members of the treasury benches also stood up in protest.

Taking up the point of order raised by Kharge, the chairman directed Leader of the House Piyush Goyal to authenticate the assertions made by him on March 13 and 14.

“With respect to the point of order raised by the leader of opposition, I find it expedient to direct the leader of the House to authenticate the assertions made by him on March 13 and 14 on the issue during the course of the day,” Dhankhar said. Amid slogan shouting, the chairman adjourned the House till Monday.

Meanwhile, Congress leader K C Venugopal gave Dhankhar a breach of privilege notice against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks on why former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s family did not use his surname.

The prime minister’s remarks were made during his reply to the motion of thanks on the president’s address in the Rajya Sabha on February 9 during the first part of the budget session.

“I hereby give a notice of question of privilege against the prime minister of India under Rule 188 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Council of States (Rajya Sabha) for having cast reflections upon members of Parliament during his reply to the motion of thanks on the president’s address on February 9, 2023,” Venugopal said in his notice.

He alleged that the remarks prima facie were made in a mocking manner and were not only disgraceful but also insulting and defamatory vis-a-vis members of the Nehru family, particularly Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who are members of the Lok Sabha.

Venugopal said in his notice that the very suggestion by the prime minister on why they did not take Nehru as a surname is “preposterous” by its very nature.

The prime minister, he said, knows very well that the surname of the father is not taken by daughter.

“Despite knowing that, he deliberately mocked....The tone and tenor of the remark is insinuating and derogatory in nature. This clearly amounts to casting reflections upon Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by the prime minister, which breaches upon their privileges and also tantamounts to contempt of the house.

“I seek privilege proceedings against Shri Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, for having made derogatory, insulting, distasteful and defamatory remarks against Smt Sonia Gandhi and Shri Rahul Gandhi which has amounted to breach of their privileges and also contempt of the house,” the Congress Rajya Sabha member said in his notice.

Amid a raging row over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks made in the UK, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor asserted on Friday that the former party chief at no point called on foreign countries to intervene in India’s democracy and there was nothing remotely anti-national about his comments.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave here on the row over Gandhi’s remarks, Tharoor wondered whether it was the most important issue confronting Parliament and called for moving on beyond “all this tu tu main main” and focus on the problems facing the country.

Asked about the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) demand for an apology from Gandhi over his comments, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said he does not think the former Congress chief has got anything to apologise for.

“I think that is the amazing thing about them. The BJP is brilliant I must say at politics and one of the things they have done is that they have blamed him (Gandhi) for something he has not said and then managed to stick that charge on his neck and demand that he apologise for something he has not said,” Tharoor said.

At no point did Gandhi call foreign countries to intervene in India’s democracy, the former Union minister asserted.

“What he said was explicit. He said ‘this is our problem, it is an Indian problem and Indians will solve it, but you should be aware because Indian democracy is a global public good’. I see nothing there to apologise for,” Tharoor said.

If the BJP wants Gandhi to issue an apology for talking about domestic politics in a foreign country, then the first person to apologise will have to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.

Tharoor claimed that on many foreign visits, Modi said India has been a country where nothing happened for 65 years and Indians used to be ashamed to show their faces abroad before he came to power.