BJP-opposition spar over Rahul Gandhi's 'picnic' at Parliament entrance

Nishkant Dubey has filed a notice against Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for sitting on the steps of Parliament’s main entrance.

New Delhi: Rules of Parliamentary procedure has become the latest flashpoint between the Opposition and members of the treasury benches, with BJP’s vociferous leader Nishkant Dubey filing a notice against Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for sitting on the steps of Parliament’s main entrance, the Makar Dwar.

Dubey had filed another motion against Gandhi in the earlier part of the Budget Session, a substantive motion, and the Speaker is yet to take any action on the motion.

Union Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Speaker had already given a ruling on the entrances of the Parliament. “While it is the Speaker’s prerogative to take any action on the complaint filed, the Speaker had earlier already given a ruling that there should be no feasting, eating or picnicking in any of the six entrances of Parliament,” he said.

“No kind of special gathering can be organised within these gates. There is a picture where Rahul Gandhi is eating in the entrance along with his colleagues. He is defying the observation and the ruling,” Rijiju said.

Earlier in the day, some women MPs of the TMC had entered the House with utensils as a mark of protest. Rijiju also said that the Speaker took note of that. “What can be carried inside the House, and what not is specified in the Rules of Procedure. Action, if any, will be taken by the Speaker if he deems fit,” Rijiju said.

After Gandhi's speech was halted when he mentioned the Epstein Files, several Opposition members trooped to the well of the House, shouting slogans and throwing bits of paper. In the previous part of the Budget Session, some MPs threw papers and stood up on the table office’s furniture leading to their suspension. Prominent among them are Congress MPs Manikram Tagore and Hibi Eden.

Some Opposition MPs went and met the Speaker on Thursday after he resumed his duties. In the meeting, the MPs asked that the suspension against the eight MPs be taken back.

In the previous part of the Budget Session, Dubey had filed a substantive motion seeking the cancellation of Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership and a ban on him contesting elections for life.