RS adjournment: Oppn leaders voice protest

Opposition leaders on Tuesday voiced their protest before Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for adjourning the House soon after Left MPs insisted on raising the issue of police lathi-charge on JNU students and situation in Kashmir, saying they had not even entered the Well of the House.

The leaders were of the view that some way should have been found to let the opposition members speak on the issues but the Chairman adjourned the House when they were demanding that they be allowed to speak.

CPI(M) Deputy Leader Elamarom Kareem had given a notice seeking suspension of the business to discuss Kashmir while CPI Parliamentary Group Leader Binoy Vishwam and CPM's K K Ragesh had given separate notices to discuss JNU. Soon after official papers were laid on the table at 11 am, Naidu said he has not allowed their notices but the Left MPs, who were supported by other Opposition MPs, rose on their feet saying it was important.

However, Naidu adjourned the House till 2 pm, which the Opposition MPs were not happy about.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress Deputy Leader Anand Sharma, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, Trinamool Congress' Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, AAP's Sanjay Singh, CPM's T K Rangarajan met Naidu to raise their concerns. Deputy Leader of House and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal also attended the meeting.

Rajya Sabha sources said Naidu told the leaders that he had already allowed the JNU issue to be raised in Zero Hour as it was "not a fit case" for suspending the business under Rule 267. Naidu told them that he was concerned about "such approach the very next day" after the House discussed the functioning of the House and the way forward.

Opposition leaders said no member entered the well of the House and some way should have been found to let the Opposition members speak on the issue.

In a Facebook post, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan accused the Left MPs of trying to grab media attention by stalling the House. Responding to this, Kareem said Muraldeeharan was making a "misleading" allegation and they had only risen from their seats to insist on a discussion.

"These kind of remarks are coming when the Chairman's action was being criticised. Nobody has forgotten how this government got the Bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir when the whole Opposition had been in the Well of the House. At that time, they had not adjourned the House or hold talks with the Opposition. It means they will run the House if the situation suits them," Kareem said.

In a statement, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien said not a single MP from Opposition went into the Well of the Rajya Sabha and yet the House was adjourned within minutes right till 2 pm.

"Opposition is deprived of raising important issues in Zero Hour and holding ministers accountable in Question Hour. When the government doesn’t have answers, you run away," he said.

"Here are four good reasons why the government has run away from Rajya Sabha today and adjourned Zero Hour and Question Hour. First, four questions in Question Hour were to be answered by Finance Minister 1) Hoarding notes after Demonetization 2) PMC Bank Fraud 3) Public Sector Banks fraud and 4) PSU's disinvestment," he added.