Another futile week in RS, Venkaiah warns lawmakers
NEW DELHI: After two weeks of Rajya Sabha proceedings were lost to disruptions, House chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday took members to task and appealed for a return to normalcy from next week.
“You can’t dictate and say ‘either your way or the highway’. That is no way. I am sorry, I can’t allow this sort of thing,” Naidu said in the House on Friday. Since the beginning of the second half of the budget session on March 5, the Opposition has disrupted proceedings over the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.
At the same time, members of the Telugu Desam Party, the BJP’s biggest ally in southern India before it snapped ties on Friday, raised demands for special status to Andhra Pradesh. On Friday, the Upper House was adjourned twice before proceedings ended. Naidu asked memfunction. bers to introspect, adding that matters such as “banking irregularities, Cauvery issue, concerns of the people of Andhra Pradesh and sealing (of commercial establishments) issue in Delhi” were of concern to the public, but that the House had been unable to discuss them. “Don’t test my patience,” Naidu warned lawmakers.
Parliamentary observers say the Rajya Sabha chairman has the authority to name and shame errant members to bring order to the House; a suspension would be a long process. The chairman may also allow passage of some bills amid attempts to disrupt proceedings to demonstrate his determination to make the House Soon after Naidu’s appeal for return to normalcy, Congress member Satyavrat Chaturvedi stood up and said he agreed with the chairman, but sought to know whether it was the first time that he was witness to such scenes in Parliament.
In response, Naidu wondered whether the member was suggesting that the existence of a precedent allowed him to repeat such conduct. “Do you want this sort of a thing to continue?” he said, adjourning the House until 2.30pm.
Opposition members said it was the government’s responsibility to make the House work.
The NCP’s Majid Memon said the government did not seem to be interested in the running of the House. “We have been telling parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Goel to take the lead, call the agitating members and sit with the chairman. But he says ‘we are not going to do that’. The government itself appears to be interested in stalling the house.”