Rajya Sabha goes into month-long recess as Adani issue standoff overshadows budget session

PTI

New Delhi, February 13

Rajya Sabha, which went into a month-long recess on Monday, saw the first half of the Budget session being overshadowed by the Adani issue, with proceedings disrupted on the last day also as protesting opposition MPs, some of whom were named by the Chair, pressed their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar named around eight MPs of the Opposition who were shouting slogans in the Well but did not specify the action against them.

Asking the Opposition to maintain decorum and allow the 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.

The Chairman said that 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.”

The House will now meet at 11 am on March 13.

On Friday, the chairman suspended Congress’ Rajani Patil for the remaining part of the budget session for circulating an unauthorised video of House proceedings.

The first part of the Budget session was marked by frequent disruptions over the demand for a JPC on the Hindenburg report’s allegations of irregularities against the Adani group, which has denied the charges.

The issue dominated the proceedings in Parliament as the Opposition unitedly demanded that a JPC be set up to probe the crash of stock prices of Adani group companies leading to huge loss of capital including to some PSUs like SBI and LIC.

The Upper House could not transact any significant business except taking up the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi replied, and the discussion on the general budget which was followed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s reply.

On Monday, the chairman spoke about deliberate obstruction of proceedings and adjourned the House for the day after repeated appeals to bring order went 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.

After the listed papers were laid on the table of the House, opposition MPs insisted that the Chair allow the Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to speak.

When Dhankhar permitted Kharge, 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.

Kharge was referring to the expunction of some remarks made by him in the House last week and said there was nothing unparliamentary in them.

Dhankhar said he was getting sleepless nights because of the 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.

“Members, I hereby name Shri Raghav Chadha, Shri Pathak, Shri Sanjay Singh, Shri Ketkar, Shri Imran Pratapgarhi, Shrimati P.D. Netam...Let us not ridicule this temple to that level... Shri Shaktisinh Gohil, Shri Gupta,” the chairman said amid continued disruptions.

Later, he said, “I sit in this Chair to be extremely persuasive. I sit in this Chair with high expectations. If you were saying, ‘I was naming’, I have to hold back certain situations. All of us must reflect on what is expected of us. Things can be done in one second. You know it. I do not want to do it.” “If I took a step yesterday, it was with a heavy heart and, trust me, when I really look within, I have never come across in my forty years, more talented people, more knowledgeable people, people with high credentials, people of greater achievements in society.

“And what really perplexes me is, how these people in togetherness can go that way,” Dhankhar said while urging members to allow the listed business to be taken up as it is the mandate of the rule, the Constitution and the expectation of people.

Earlier, he also rejected the notices given by some opposition members under Rule 267 to suspend the other business of the House and take up a discussion on the Hindenburg-Adani issue and said AAP’s Sanjay Singh has given seven notices so far which are all identical and there is no variation in the content at all.

“If there has been a direction issued by me on the first notice, you will appreciate that the remaining six, that are identical to the first, are in defiance of the direction.

“I am sure, the House will not approve that we create such kind of a situation that even after there is a direction by the Chair, on the same language, ditto, without any variation, we have these many notices again.

“Both these notices are not in order. The notices are declined,” he said.

Earlier, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari urged the Chair to revoke the 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 he was replying to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address.

Only after that, he said, could the demand for revocation of suspension be considered.

“If this is going to be the behaviour which is shown to the rest of the country and the world, it is truly an insult of the House. They are repeatedly disrupting.

“I don’t know whether you will have to name the members and take appropriate action against them,” Goyal said, noting that their mood is very agitated. He suggested adjourning the House for some time and asking their leaders whether they are interested in running the House.

This led to more slogan shouting and uproar from Opposition benches, forcing the Chair to adjourn the House.

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