8 ministers target Opp, ask it to ‘apologise’ for Parl ruckus
Urge RS Chair to take ‘strong action’ against ‘unruly’ MPs
Alleging that the Congress and its allies, along with other parties, had predecided not to allow Parliament to function, the government on Thursday demanded the Opposition should “apologise to the nation” for what had happened in the just-ended Monsoon Session of Parliament. A day after the session was curtailed two days early due to the Opposition’s continual protests and sloganeering over the Pegasus snooping case and the three controversial farm laws, that also led to ugly scenes and unruly behaviour from some Opposition members, the presiding officers of both Houses -- Speaker Om Birla and vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu -held a meeting where they expressed “deep concern” over the disruptive behaviour of some parliamentarians and “strongly felt that such unruly behaviour should not be tolerated and appropriate action should be taken”. Earlier on
Thursday, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi, Leader of the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and his deputy Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had met Mr Naidu at his official residence.
Condemning the behaviour of the Opposition parties, a group of Union ministers later held a joint press conference to rebut allegations levelled by the Opposition parties and alleged that “anarchy from the streets to Parliament” was the Opposition’s only agenda in the Monsoon Session. Ministers Prahlad Joshi, Piyush Goyal, Anurag Thakur, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Bhupender Yadav, V. Muraleedharan and Arjun Meghwal addressed the press conference.
The government also rebutted the allegations by NCP supremo Sharad Pawar that “outsiders” had been called in to “manhandle” Opposition members, including women MPs, with Leader of the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal asserting that the NCP chief was probably “wrongly informed” and asked him to introspect on the behaviour of his “colleagues in the Opposition”.
Blaming the Opposition for the unruly scenes seen during the Monsoon Session, the group of ministers also asked the Rajya Sabha Chairman to take the “strongest possible action against those who broke the rules”. Condemning the Opposition’s approach of “my way… or the highway”, Mr Goyal said the ministers had met the Chairman and deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha and made an earnest appeal that the strongest action should be taken against the Opposition MPs for their “deplorable behaviour and manhandling of the marshals”.
He said the Opposition was unable to digest the fact that the country had given up on them and their behaviour in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday was a “new low of the parliamentary democracy”.
I&B minister Anurag Thakur said the Rajya Sabha secretary-general’s table was not meant for dancing and protesting, referring to an incident when an Opposition leader was seen above a table inside the Upper House, and alleged that “anarchy from streets to Parliament” was the Opposition’s only agenda during the Monsoon Session.
Reacting to the allegations by the NCP chief, Mr Goyal said the marshals belong to neither the ruling side nor the Opposition, and alleged it was a woman marshal who was in fact manhandled by the protesting members in the Upper House. “In 55 years of my parliamentary career, I have never seen this kind of behaviour towards women MPs in the august House. More than 40 men and women were brought into the House from outside. It is painful. It is an attack on democracy,” Mr Pawar had alleged.
To this, Mr Goyal said all those were parliamentary security service marshals. Twelve of them were women marshals and 18 male personnel. “Let me clarify, Pawar was wrongly informed, may be by somebody. Their figures are wrong, and their allegations are also wrong that they were outsiders who came in… I would like to urge Sharad Pawarji to introspect on the behaviour of the Opposition throughout the entire Parliament session. Whether the parties with which he is standing today is what he has seen in 55 years of his parliamentary career? Has he ever seen this type of thing? I think Pawarji should introspect and tell the nation whether he condones their behaviour,” Mr Goyal said.