LS burns midnight oil for two straight days

NEW DELHI: It wasn’t a dark and stormy night , but it was an unprecedented one in the history of Indian Parliament.

On the intervening night of Monday -Tuesday, the Lok Sabha worked till 12.24 am (Tuesday), clocking a new record of sitting beyond midnight for two consecutive nights after it did so on Sunday-Monday as well.

And while the Lok Sabha was still buzzing even as the clock announced the beginning of Tuesday, just outside the Parliament building, near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, a group of eight members of parliament suspended from the Rajya Sabha by chairman Venkaiah Naidu for “gross disorderly conduct”, organised the first overnight protest seen in Indian Parliament.

It was a new addition to the many new normals of the monsoon session against the looming shadow of spike in Covid cases.

The night, as alive and richly coloured as the day, presented the two faces of MPs-- their commitment to work beyond the stipulated hours and their right to democratically protest.

In the LS, Speaker Om Birla, 57, sat through the proceedings till the House was adjourned early on Tuesday to meet again in the afternoon. The Lok Sabha, scheduled to meet for four hours from 3 pm to 7 pm, cleared The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 at 8.23pm and at 11.38pm approved The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020. At 12. 22 am, the Lower House cleared The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and The Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

In the 70’s and 80’s, budget discussions often spilled over into the next day, but long time MPs and also watchers of parliamentary proceedings claimed that this is perhaps the first time bills were passed after midnight.