Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and the Opposition were in collision course on Monday after the former expunged remarks of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge "indicating in so many words" that cast aspersions on the Chair for not allowing a discussion on Adani Group and suspension of a Congress MP.
The House was adjourned till March 13 for the second leg of Budget but only after the Opposition remained adamant on their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe on Adani Group issue and revocation of suspension of Rajani Patil, who was accused of filming House proceedings.
The Opposition's adamant stand on the issues of discussion and suspension came after a meeting of 14 Opposition parties chaired by Kharge in the morning. At the meeting, the leaders decided to vociferously raise the issue like in the previous days.
As soon as the official papers were laid on the table of the House, Opposition MPs were on their feet with Dhankhar rejecting two notices for suspension of business by AAP's Sanjay Singh and CPI's P Sandhosh Kumar. Dhankhar also objected to Singh who submitted identical notices on seven days though on the first instance itself, the Chairman had rejected it.
The Chairman then went ahead with Zero Hour amid sloganeering by the Opposition but later allowed Kharge to put forward his argument. Kharge said he was raising the issue with anguish and then made remarks, which were expunged from the records.
Dhankhar told the House, "you (Kharge) indicated in so many words…These are expunged. You are forfeiting your right to hold the floor. Every time you are making an allegation…You are making it inside, you are making it outside. This is not done." Dhankhar repeated Kharge’s remarks but later expunged those that echoed the charges against the Chair.
As the protest continued, the House was adjourned till 11:50 AM. When the House reassembled, senior Congress MP Digvijaya Singh said the whole world was discussing "one subject" and articles are being written about it but it is not being discussed in Parliament. "Why can't we have a JPC probe?" he asked.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari also demanded that the suspension of Patil be revoked but Leader of House Piyush Goyal said the House has to decide on it and that the Opposition should apologise.
As the Opposition protest continued, Dhankhar adjourned the House till March 13.
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