Adani rout keeps Parliament on tenterhooks for third day

Parliament was stalled for the third consecutive day over Adani Group issue on Monday, after a section in the Opposition insisted on continuing the protest demanding that a discussion on the conglomerate should be separate and need not be clubbed with the one on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address.

The Opposition camp was diametrically divided over starting the debate on Monday, after two days of disrupting the Parliament, with Congress, DMK, Left parties and RSP among others arguing for participating in the Motion of Thanks debate while AAP, BRS, RJD and SP vociferously countering it, saying the issue would be diluted if there is no separate discussion.

Read | Opposition leaders hold protest in Parliament premises on Adani issue

At a meeting of Opposition parties chaired by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, however, all parties came around the idea of continuing the protest for one more day after the parties favouring disruption vociferously argued their point.

One of the concerns for agreeing to this position was that the parties wanted to project a united face, sources said. Trinamool Congress, which was not part of the meeting, also was in favour of starting the debate but went with other parties in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, which did not transact any business during the day.

However, the division over the mode of protest did not prevent the parties from projecting a united face outside as they jointly protested at the Gandhi Statue in Parliament as decided earlier.

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Kharge said only a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Supreme Court monitored investigation under the Chief Justice of India can “bring out the truth about forced investments” by LIC and SBI in Adani Group, which “endangers” the hard-earned savings of common people. Leaders of like-minded opposition parties met in this regard,” he said.

Last Thursday, there was broad agreement among parties that they should vociferously demand a discussion on Adani Group following Hindenburg Research’s report and the financial exposure of SBI and LIC in the conglomerate but allow the debate from Monday. However, parties like BRS and AAP were against this line.

As the Parliament saw Opposition demand for discussion rejected, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “yet again for the third day in a row Opposition was not allowed to even mention in Parliament its legitimate demand for JPC into PM-linked Adani MahaMegaScam….Modi government is simply running away.”

Senior Congress MP P Chidambaram said it was wrong for the government to project that the Opposition was disrupting the Parliament, as their only demand is a proper debate on the issue.

Similar scenes were witnessed in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha leading to adjournments in the morning and afternoon sessions. Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha functioned for just 15 minutes each in two sessions during the day.

In Rajya Sabha, Chairman M Dhankhar said he had received ten notices to suspend notices, including one from Kharge, but he had to reject it as it was not in conformity with rules, prompting the Opposition to protest.

Read | Opposition turns up heat on Modi government with pan-India protests over Adani issue

Criticising the protesting MPs, he said, “on the days we had lost, there was an opportunity every day to raise the issue the House sought to raise. To generate optical impressions, we cannot allow rules to be derailed.”

As similar scenes were witnessed in Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla said, “this is not good. Sloganeering is against the dignity of the House. People have elected you to raise their issues in Parliament but you are not interested in participating in debate.”