Ruckus over Pegasus, farm laws in House
Parliament faces repeated disruptions on Day 3 of Monsoon Session as Oppn MPs target Modi govt
NEW DELHI: Parliament was on Thursday adjourned after repeated disruption by opposition members who continued to target the Narendra Modiled Union government over the farmers’ agitation, Pegasus surveillance, price of fuel and income tax raids on media houses on day 3 of the Monsoon Session.
Proceedings were adjourned thrice in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha before they were finally adjourned for the day as opposition leaders were unrelenting in their protest.
In the Lower House, as soon as proceedings began, opposition MPs raised slogans and held placards over a range of issues, including the Pegasus snooping row and demanding a rollback of the three farm fills. They came near the Speaker’s podium in support of their demands.
Speaker Om Birla objected to opposition members raising slogans and showing placards in the House. He said the House is for discussion and answering questions and if the opposition members want to raise slogans and show placards, they can do
so outside the House.
With the Opposition resolute in their demand, the House was adjourned till 12pm, 2pm and then till 4pm.
When the House met at 4 pm, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Bhartruhari Mahtab, who was in the Chair, urged members to take their seats.
“Most of you are responsible members of this House. I would request all of you to go back to your seats and allow the House to function. Whatever issues you want to discuss, I am told the government is also agreeable to having a structured discussion in the House,” he said.
However, the Opposition members did not relent still, forcing the Chair to adjourn the proceedings for the day. It will not meet at 11 am on Friday.
Two bills -- Inland Vessels Bill, 2021, and Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 -were introduced in the House amid the din.
In the Rajya Sabha, too, as soon as the House assembled for the day, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tried to raise the issue of raids against the media group in multiple cities. Other opposition members, including those from the Trinamool Congress, rushed into the well of the House over reports about the Modi government allegedly targeting political rivals, journalists and critics for surveillance using Israeli company NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.
Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu first ordered that Singh’s remarks would not go on record and then asked members not to show placards. “I have not permitted you. You have to seek permission from me. Nothing shall go on record,” Naidu told Singh.
But the members continued to protest, forcing Naidu to adjourn the proceedings. Just one listed paper could barely be laid before the proceedings were adjourned.
When the House reassembled at 12 noon, the opposition members continued with their protest even as deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh requested them allow the Question Hour.
However, protesting members did not heed to his request and the House was adjourned till 2pm and then till 4pm.
However, as Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was making a statement on the Pegasus snooping row, TMC MP Shantanu Sen snatched the papers, tore them and and flung them into the air, throwing the Rajya Sabha into bedlam.
TMC and other opposition party members rushed into the well of the House as Vaishnaw was called to make a statement over the issue.
As papers were flung into the air, the minister could not complete his statement and instead laid a copy of it on the table of the House. Deputy chairman Harivansh asked members to desist from unparliamentary behaviour, before adjourning the proceedings of the House for the rest of the day.
The disruptions came a day after a global investigative consortium reported that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, election strategist Prashant Kishor, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and two sitting Union ministers were among people potentially targeted by Israeli phone hacking software Pegasus
Meanwhile, Congress MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, staged a protest inside the Parliament complex in support of protesting farmers and demanded that three new agriculture laws of the Centre be withdrawn.
Congress MPs from both Houses gathered outside Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Parliament complex and raised slogans against the government and PM Modi. “They are adamant on falsehood, injustice, arrogance. We are Satyagrahis, standing here fearless, united. Jai Kisan,” Gandhi said in tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag “#FarmersParliament”.