Oppn not letting Shah speak: BJP
NEW DELHI: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Tuesday alleged in Rajya Sabha that the Opposition was working together to prevent BJP president Amit Shah from speaking, and called it “undemocratic and a new low in parliamentary democracy”.
Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu had to adjourn the House for the day following protests by members of Trinamool Congress (TMC), who trooped into the Well shortly after Shah stood up to speak on the hiked minimum support price for Kharif crops and other issues.
The TMC members raised slogans and demanded that their privilege notice under Rule 267, which prescribes suspension of all business to take up a matter related to the NRC and its legislators being detained, be admitted.
When Chairman Naidu tried to invoke the Rule that allows the Chair to remove a disrupting member from the House, the Congress MPs stood up in protest.
The law minister said the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill 2018, too, was listed in the day’s business which could not be taken up due to disruptions and adjournments.
The Upper House was adjourned twice in quick succession after the lunch break before calling it a day, even after the NDA allies and other Opposition parties, including the Congress, BJD, SP, AIADMK, JD(U), and Shiv Sena among others, insisted that the debate be continued. Congress leader Anand Sharma said the House must be in order before the debate is resumed.
At the press conference later in the day, Prasad also alleged that the Congress was being “anti-Dalit and anti-tribal” as the House’s agenda had included a debate on a bill to strengthen a law on atrocities against Dalits but it could not be taken up due to adjournment.
Opposition members had disrupted Shah's speech in the House during a debate on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam as well.