Rajya Sabha adjourns for the day amid Opposition protest, walkout

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha proceedings adjourned for the day Monday as Opposition parties continued their protest over the Pegasus snooping row, farm laws and other issues, with the Congress, TMC and DMK also staging a walkout.

However, the treasury benches managed to get Rajya Sabha approval for two bills -- The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

After the passage of these two bill, the House took special mentions before Deputy Chairman Harivansh adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, when the House assembled at 3.30 pm after a brief adjournment, Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge protested against the taking up of the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, saying the supplementary agenda was circulated at 2.15 pm. He said the members of the House cannot do justice during the debate on ä bill which gets circulate only a few hours before being taken up.

"We cannot support such wrong practice. We are walking out," Kharge said.

Responding to this, Leader of the House and Union Minister Piyush Goyal said it was not the first time that a supplementary agenda was circulated.

He also said the Taxation Amendment Bill as well as The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (listed in supplementary agenda) were in national interest.

Sukhendu Sekhar Ray of the TMC and Tiruchi Siva of the DMK too joined the issue with Kharge, and their parties staged a walkout.

In the meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill for consideration and return.

It was passed later on with brief a debate.

Similarly, the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was also passed after a brief debate.

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