New Delhi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (RSTV GRAB via PTI)(PTI7_24_2018_000158B)
Following reports that the Congress and some other opposition parties are considering writing to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, faulting the way he is running the House, leaders of at least three non-NDA parties expressed confidence in Naidu at the Chairman’s morning meeting with political parties on Friday.
While TRS member D Srinivas has written to Naidu, expressing his confidence in him, BJD leader Prasanna Acharya said his party has full confidence in Naidu and is satisfied with his running of the House. He was seconded by Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Yadav.
Srinivas wrote: “I want to make very clear that neither my party nor I, in my personal capacity, have been consulted or informed by the opposition in this regard. Also, I want to make it amply clear that we are not upset with you and the way you are running the House. Nor are we party to any plan to write to you, as has been widely reported in the media today. Our faith in your fairness of conducting the House is absolute and unqualified. In fact, I want to put it on record that we are completely satisfied over the way in which you have been running the House impartially and unbiasedly for the last nearly one year,”.
Although no letter from other opposition parties has been received yet, Naidu’s office has compiled a list of all calling attention motions (CANs) and short-duration discussion (SDD) notice by the ruling party allowed in the House since 2007 — the tenure of Ansari — to debunk any charge of partiality, if it is made. From 2007-2008 no CAN notice by then ruling party was admitted. In 2007 and 2009, one SDD notice by a Congress member was admitted; in 2008, one notice by RJD, a UPA ally, was admitted.
In 2010 and 2011, Congress had one CAN each. In 2013, one SDD notice by SP was admitted. In 2014, NDA, then in power, had two SDD notices admitted, and in 2016, BJP had one, according to details collated.
Taking a cue from Lok Sabha, where several opposition MPs wrote to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan about her running of the House, RS MPs have had discussions about writing a similar letter to Naidu. While opposition leaders say they have a long list of grouse, the latest flashpoint was Naidu’s decision to allow Amit Shah to speak twice on the same subject. A point of order was raised on the matter, which Naidu dismissed on Thursday.