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Informist, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance members are planning to submit a notice on Tuesday, seeking to move a resolution for the removal of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, two members of the upper house familiar with developments said. The notice for the resolution for the removal of Dhankar as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha has been signed by more than 70 members of INDIA bloc parties, including the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, and the Aam Aadmi Party, sources added.

 

The Opposition bloc is moving the motion under Article 67(B) of the Constitution. The article states that a vice-president may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the council and agreed to by the House of the People. It also states that the resolution can only be moved after at least 14 days' notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.

 

This is the second time in less than six months that the opposition has planned to move a resolution against Dhankar. During Budget-cum-Monsoon session earlier this year, the opposition had planned to bring a no-confidence motion against Dhankhar but could not go ahead as the session ended.

 

Earlier on Monday, the opposition parties criticised Dhankhar over his alleged partial approach in convening parliamentary proceedings. Opposition members accused Dhankhar of allowing the Bharatiya Janata Party members to speak in the House on the issue of alleged links between American billionaire philanthropist and investor George Soros and the Congress party after rejecting their notices under rule 267 for discussion on the same issue.

 

After the House convened in the morning, Dhankhar announced that he had received 11 notices under rule 267 of Parliamentary procedure seeking adjournment of listed business to hold discussion on multiple issues, including “rising threats to national security due to alleged nexus between a political party and some organisations working against India” moved by ruling alliance members. Dhankhar had rejected all the notices.

 

However, chaos erupted in the house after BJP members resorted to sloganeering against the Congress party. BJP members, who had moved the notices that were turned down by the vice-president, raised the issue again, during the zero hour, pressing for a discussion on the matter.

 

At this point, Dhankhar asked Union Minister and Leader of the House J.P. Nadda to speak on the ongoing disruptions. However, Nadda, advocating for peaceful proceedings in the house, said that there should be a discussion on the alleged links between Soros and the Congress party.

 

Following Nadda’s remark, Dhankhar allowed several other BJP members, including Sudhanshu Trivedi, Laxmikant Vajpayee, and Bhubaneswar Kalita, to speak in the House. All the members accused the Congress of threatening national security and having links with Soros.

 

The Congress strongly objected to the conduct of the chairman. Leader of Opposition and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge asked how the chairman was allowing the ruling party members to raise the issue when he had rejected their notices. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said, "Never expected this from you. Under which rule you allowed the ruling party members to speak. You’re doing partiality."

 

Communist Party of India member P. Sandosh Kumar said that it was a calculated move to save industrialist Gautam Adani. Communist Party of India (Marxist) member John Brittas said that let there be discussion in both the issues on the allegations of fraud and bribery against Adani and alleged links between Soros and Congress party.

 

The Upper House witnessed chaos with both sides now indulging in sloganeering.

 

While the Winter Session is now in its third week, Parliament has only seen two days of peaceful proceedings. The first week was washed out amid the Opposition's demand to hold discussions on allegations against Adani. The impasse ended on Tuesday, when the opposition agreed to cooperate with the government on smooth functioning of both the houses. The agreement ended on Thursday after BJP's Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey sought to link Soros with Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party. Dubey had alleged that Gandhi had links with the billionaire foreign investor and others, who have in the past tried to derail India's "success story". 

 

In a lecture in Germany early last year, Soros said the controversy surrounding Indian tycoon Gautam Adani's business empire might damage Prime Minister 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 Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar dubbing the billionaire a "dangerous" person who was "scaremongering".

 

Meanwhile, as an initiative to defuse the deadlock and ensure resumption of normal proceedings, the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar has called a meeting of the floor leaders of all parties at 1030 IST on Tuesday. Among the listed government business includes the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in the Rajya Sabha. The bill that aims to streamline banking operations was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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