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Informist, Thursday, Mar. 20, 2025

NEW DELHI - The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings on Thursday were adjourned for the day after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members in both the houses staged a unique protest by wearing t-shirts with slogans calling for a fair delimitation exercise. The DMK members wore t-shirts reading: "Fair Delimitation, Tamil Nadu will Fight! Tamil Nadu will win".

As a result, both the houses skipped the zero hour and the question hour, witnessing multiple adjournments before concluding the day's proceedings.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar held a meeting with floor leaders to discuss the DMK's protest. According to a member, at the meeting, the chairman expressed disapproval of the DMK's protest by wearing t-shirts with slogans. In response, DMK leader Tiruchi Siva told the chairman that there was nothing wrong about the t-shirts with the slogans, pointing out that the Bharatiya Janata Party members often wear attire featuring the lotus symbol and raise slogans in the house. The chairman then proposed to formulate rules for members' conduct in the house.

When the Rajya Sabha proceedings resumed for the day, the house was adjourned till 1200 IST. Without pointing out towards DMK members' t-shirts, Dhankhar said that he would share his observations with the members. The upper house was adjourned again till 1400 IST, and then for the day. The Lok Sabha was also adjourned for the day. In the lower house, opposition members wore similar t-shirts demanding a fair delimitation exercise. The next delimitation exercise is scheduled for 2026, though there is uncertainty surrounding the process as the country has not conducted a census since 2011, and there is no clear timeline for when it will take place.

DMK member M. Mohamed Abdulla said that Tamil Nadu and other southern states would be impacted severely following the delimitation exercise. He raised apprehension that after the delimitation, Tamil Nadu's representation could drop to 31 seats from the current 39 seats, and Kerala's to 12 seats from 20 seats. He said that the party wants Tamil Nadu's representation to remain at the current 7.18% post-delimitation. Abdulla also said the DMK will continue its protest on this issue.

Rashtriya Janata Dal member Manoj Jha said that other opposition parties would join the protests against the delimitation exercise in the coming days in the upper house.

In the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Home Minister Amit Shah was scheduled to respond to the discussion on the Ministry of Home Affairs' performance. On other hand, the Lok Sabha was set to discuss the Demands for Grants for the Ministry of Jal Shakti for the fiscal year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar).

The ongoing Budget session is scheduled to conclude on Apr. 4. The session commenced on Jan. 31 with the address of President Droupadi Murmu to both houses. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget for FY26 on Feb. 1.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday issued a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha members asking them to be present in the lower house on Friday. A BJP member said that the Lok Sabha will pass the Budget and apply guillotine on Friday. The house will approve guillotine followed by the Finance bill.  End

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

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Subhojit Sarkar

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