Impasse continues in Parliament as Opposition, BJP members raise slogans
This story was originally published at 21:29 IST on 6 December 2024
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NEW DELHI – Parliamentary proceedings were disrupted for the second day running Friday as members of the Opposition raised slogans in the Lok Sabha and Bharatiya Janata Party members did likewise in the Rajya Sabha. The Opposition created an uproar in the Lok Sabha over BJP member Nishikant Dubey’s remarks, who had sought Thursday to link US-based billionaire George Soros with Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. After two days of smooth functioning earlier this week, both Houses of Parliament witnessed unscheduled adjournments Thursday and Friday.
In the Rajya Sabha, BJP members resorted to sloganeering over the recovery of a wad of currency notes by security officials during a routine anti-sabotage check of the House Thursday. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said around 100 notes of INR 500 denomination were recovered from the seat allotted to Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress. He said an investigation had been ordered.
When the House reconvened after lunch, BJP members raised slogans on the issue. Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh made an unsuccessful attempt to pacify the members, and then adjourned the proceedings for the day.
Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after opposition members led by the Congress protested against Dubey's slur of "Congress ka haath, Soros ke saath". Questioning what he called the party's ties with people associated with the Soros Foundation and foreign nationals who have criticised India, Dubey had sought to know if Rahul Gandhi had links with foreign forces trying to "derail" India's growth trajectory.
In a lecture in Germany early last year, Soros had said that the controversies surrounding business tycoon Gautam Adani's empire could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "stranglehold on India's national government and provide a platform for promoting urgent institutional reforms. I could be foolish, but I think democracy will flourish again in India." Soros's speech at the Munich Security Conference drew sharp reactions from Indian officials, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar calling him a "dangerous" person who was "scaremongering".
Earlier in the day, the Congress and other opposition parties held a protest march at the Parliament complex demanding a probe into the allegations against Adani. The opposition members, including Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, wore masks carrying the message “Modi Adani Bhai Bhai” and raised slogans.
Two weeks of the Winter Session were completed Friday. Parliament functioned for just two days in these weeks. The first week was washed out as opposition parties demanded a discussion on the indictment of Adani and senior officials of his conglomerate in the US. They also demanded discussion on the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district, where five people were killed in clashes with the police, and the seemingly endless violence in Manipur.
On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla convened an all-party meeting to end the impasse. The Opposition agreed to cooperate with the government for smooth functioning of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha after the government agreed to a discussion on the Constitution next week. Both Houses then transacted some legislative business on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, however, proceedings were marred by the remarks made by the BJP’s Dubey in the Lok Sabha and Sudhanshu Trivedi in the Rajya Sabha. The Winter Session is scheduled to end on Dec. 20. End
Reported by Kuldeep Singh
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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