LS adjourned for the day after Oppn uproar
NEW DELHI: The proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Wednesday by angry Congress members who raised anti-government slogans over a range of issues, including revocation of suspension of six of its members, forcing its adjournment for the day.
The House, which saw two adjournments in the afternoon due to the noisy protests, was adjourned for the day at around 3.45 PM.
For most part of the day, many Congress members were in the Well raising slogans like "Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply)", "tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship)", "jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste)" and "Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai.
On the suspension of six Congress MPS, the members, including K C Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, also shouted "Speaker saheb, nyay karo (Speaker, do justice). At one point of time, they were also joined by members of Trinamool Congress.
Amidst the day-long slogan-shouting by Congress and other opposition mem- bers with many of them in the Well, the House took up the Question Hour, proceeded partially with the Zero Hour and then debated and passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
As soon as the bill was passed in the afternoon, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal initiated a discussion on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was listed in the day's agenda. This bill has been listed for discussion since last week.
As the the din continued, Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day.
Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government has several times requested the Congress members to sit and participate in the discussions but they are not ready to listen.
"We are ready to debate any issue but they are not ready," he said, adding that during the discussion on agrarian crisis, the Congress members had walked out. "Why is Congress doing a walk in, walk out... they will be walked out (sic) from all over," Kumar said while criticising the Congress members for throwing papers towards the Chair.
"It is highly condemnable. They should have apologised. This is against democracy... this is anti-tradition and antidemocracy," he added.