RS adjourned, dam Bill to be taken up today

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi requested Deputy Chairman Harivansh to chalk the discussion on the Dam Safety Bill for Wednesday — in the Opposition’s presence.

“We don’t want to run the proceedings without the Opposition. We are open to constructive criticism. We don’t want to run the Parliament without discussion. We are the most democratic party in India and our leader is also the most democratic. I believe the opposition has boycotted the proceedings for a day… let us wait… the Dam safety Bill is important, and we can discuss it tomorrow,” said Joshi.

Since The Dam Safety Bill, 2019 was the only legislaive business in the afternoon, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House for the day.

The afternoon session of the Rajya Sabha had begun with BJP leader of the House Piyush Goyal backing the Rajya Sabha Chairman’s decision to not revoke the suspension of the MPs.

The Union minister brought up the chaotic scenes seen during the Monsoon Session.

“From the first day of the session, when the Prime Minister tried introducing the new ministers in Parliament, the opposition didn’t let him,” said Goyal. “On the second day, when Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was giving a statement on the very issue that the opposition had raised, and demanded a discussion on, the whole country saw how the opposition behaved – with members snatching the statement from the minister’s hands and tearing it up.”

Goyal said: “When it looked like opposition members would attack the Chair”, there was no choice left but to suspend the Members.

Goyal said the House is a continuous institution and it cannot be said that the matter of the last session is over with the end of it.

“When the Opposition demanded division, the results showed that there were 79 votes in favour of the Chair and 44 votes in favour of the opposition. So we have the strength and numbers unlike the misinformation that the opposition is trying to spread that the 12 members have been suspended because the government doesn’t have numbers. We can have another division any day that the opposition asks for it – you will see the results for yourself,” said Goyal.

“The whole House would like the MPs to return. They should apologise for their behaviour on August 11. They should apologise to the House, the chair and the country,” he added.

During the day, the Congress, DMK, RJD, Left, and AAP had raised slogans over Naidu’s refusal to revoke the suspension and then walked out. TMC members, too, walked out a short while later.