High decibel slugfest deepens acrimony

While in Rajya Sabha government managed to get under-fire Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj make a statement, in Lok Sabha <g data-gr-id="123">Speaker</g> suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days from the House.

In a day of high-voltage political drama, the Congress floor managers especially in Rajya Sabha, where it outnumbers government benches, were at their wits end as Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj managed to make an intervention and assert that she was above board in Lalitgate case. The Congress members were caught completely off guard when the treasury benches in the morning agreed to the party deputy leader Anand Sharma’s notice for a discussion on Lalitgate case. As the party has taken the stand that the discussion could happen only if the minister resigned, Sharma dilly-dallied. Sensing an opportunity, the government suddenly pitch-forked Sushma Swaraj to counter Sharma.  

Slogan-shouting Congress members standing in the well tried to drown Swaraj’s voice but the veteran parliamentarian used the limited opportunity to drive home the point that the Congress’ allegations were baseless and misleading, and that she never made a request to the British government to facilitate travel documents for Lalit Modi. With the din getting <g data-gr-id="119">louder</g> the chair adjourned the house till 2 pm.

When the House met again in the afternoon, Congress fielded Rahul Gandhi’s trusted lieutenant Madhusudan Mistry to get Sushma’s counter expunged from the records. However, after some discussion on the technicalities the chair ruled that the Minister’s counter would go on record as a response to allegations levelled against her and not a statement. Frustration was writ large on the Congress benches as Sharma demanded that a direction be given to media to withdraw broadcast of Swaraj’s statement. 

In the Lok Sabha too, the government forced Congress on the back foot by fielding Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh to respond to a discussion on a Calling Attention motion moved by former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on farmer suicides in Congress-ruled Karnataka. 

While the Congress leaders continued to shout slogans, the proceedings continued. Having made its point of embarrassing Congress and as the din grew louder, the Speaker repeatedly asked for order and warned lawmakers of the main opposition party not to carry placards.

Finally, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 27 members of the Congress for five days for causing “grave disorder” in Parliament. Reacting to the order, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, “It’s a black day for democracy.”

The decision to disrupt the parliament was taken at the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party on Monday morning where party president Sonia Gandhi endorsed Rahul Gandhi’s stand of no discussion without resignation. However, the Congress soon found it was difficult to get support from other parties on the opposition benches in the matter.

In the <g data-gr-id="116">all party</g> meeting called by parliamentary affairs ministers Venkaiah Naidu during the course of the day to break the logjam, with the exception of the Left and the JD(U), none supported the stringent stand of the Congress. The party <g data-gr-id="126">could however</g> draw some solace from the fact that the Trinamool Congress has decided to boycott the Lok Sabha till the suspension of Congress MPs was revoked.

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