The Opposition protest outside Parliament on Tuesday. (Express/Prem Nath Pandey)
Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on Tuesday afternoon following an uproar, with both the Opposition and the treasury benches accusing each other of disrupting Parliament. Apart from lashing out at the remarks made against party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress members in the House raised a number of issues, from seeking revocation of the suspension order against six of their colleagues to demanding a discussion on “lynching over cow vigilantism”.
Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, appealed to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to revoke the suspension of the six MPs, who had been penalised a day earlier for causing a ruckus in the House. “We request you to reconsider and lift the suspension of the MPs. It is not true that we (Congress) do not allow the House to function. If that were to be the case, would the House have passed so many Bills in the past three years?” Kharge asked. The Congress found support in the TMC and CPM, as both parties requested Mahajan to revoke the suspension. “Madam, I appeal to the milk of human kindness in you,” TMC’s Saugata Roy said.
Mahajan, however, did not comment on the matter. As soon as the House resumed at 3 pm, after being adjourned in the morning for the oath-taking ceremony of President Ram Nath Kovind, Congress benches hit out at BJP MPs Virendra Kumar, and Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, who had reportedly accused party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia of carrying out “anti-Dalit” activities.
Scindia said that his image had been tarnished with false information. “I have been in public life for the past 15 years and this false information spread by them has maligned by reputation. They should be suspended. Or at the least, they should tender a public apology,” he said. He said that if the remarks were found to be true, then he would quit as the member of the House and demanded that if the BJP leaders failed to prove their allegation, then they should tender their resignations.
Kharge defended Scindia and said the Guna MP has been fighting for the well-being of the Dalits in the House over the last 15 years. As Congress members, including Scindia, Kantilal Bhuria, K C Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, rushed to the Well, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she was trying to accommodate everyone by allowing them to air their concerns.
This led Mahajan to warn the members that if any one of the officials or the Secretary General are harmed by mistake, then consequences would not be good. Anguished over the unruly scenes, the Speaker said, “If you are bent upon creating a ruckus, how will the House run? I have told you to raise your concerns under the rules …Don’t try to teach me (how to run the House)”.
In the morning, as soon as the Question Hour was taken up at 11 am, Kharge raised the issue of cow vigilantism and the “repeated” incidents of lynching in the name of cow protection, sparking the uproar. Incidentally, the first question the House was to take up was “whether it is a fact that 99.19 per cent cows and 99 per cent oxen are productive in the country”. While the question was being read out, the minister could not give an answer and the proceedings were adjourned.
