DELHI SEALING DRIVE, KASGANJ VIOLENCE DISRUPT RAJYA SABHA

The House debated for over 2 hours a private member Bill of Dr Subramanian Swamy for protection of cows, ban on their slaughter and provide for deterrent punishment including death penalty for any such slaughter. Dr Swamy, however, withdrew his Cow Protection Bill after the reply of Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, just before it was to be put to vote.

A 2-day trade bandh, second in one week, in Delhi from Friday over sealing of the commercial establishments set up without permission and the recent violence in Kasganj town of Uttar Pradesh rocked the Rajya Sabha on Friday, forcing a 45minute adjournment.

Three newly-elected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members continued protest from the well even after the adjournment and its leader Sanjay Singh entered into the heated exchanges with Deputy Chairman P J Kurien during the question hour while the Congress and Trinamul Congress members to join in their support to press for stoppage of the sealings.

The AAP members, however, withdrew to their backbench seats after Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad intervened to stress that Delhi is the second home for the MPs and as such everyone is concerned to come forward to help the people in the capital hit by the rampant sealing of shops and business establishments.

When the AAP members protested from the well on start of the question hour, the deputy chairman advised them to give notice to enable him to allow the matter on Monday. On Sanjay Singh stating that they had already given the notice on Friday, the deputy chairman said he could not help as the notice was washed out in the adjournment due to the ruckus from the well in which the AAP members were also involved.

The issue of the violence in Kasganj town was raised by Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav at the start of the day’s proceedings and he kept speaking despite the deputy chairman insisting that he can’t be allowed without giving any notice. His party members as also the BSP members rushed into the well when the Chair refused to allow him to speak further, saying he cannot press the government to answer but has no objection if it wants to do so. When the ruckus continued, he adjourned the House till noon.

In an interesting aside, second-term Congress MP Dr K V P Ramachandra Rao from Telangana walked to the Chair’s podium and stood under it like a statue with a placard of “Help Andhra Pradesh” right from the start and even during the full question hour, saying nothing. When he did not respond to repeated calls by Deputy Chairman Kurien to go back to his seat, the latter wanted the Opposition leader to attend to him, asking as to “has he become made” and warning that he will take action. He has been doing this in some previous sessions as well, wanting the Centre to grant a special status to Andhra Pradesh to help it since bifurcation of the state.