As ruckus continues in House, govt says Oppn raking up a ‘non issue’

Joshi’s statement came as the logjam in Parliament continued on Friday, prompting the Opposition and the Centre to blame each other for disruptions due to protests over the Pegasus snooping row and the three farm laws.

Opposition leaders, who have disrupted proceedings in Parliament over the alleged surveillance of Indian citizens through Israeli Pegasus spyware, should not focus on “non-serious issues” but raise “important people-related issues”, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said in Lok Sabha on Friday.

Minister of parliamentary affairs Pralhad Joshi. (Sonu Mehta/HT Archive)

Joshi’s statement came as the logjam in Parliament continued on Friday, prompting the Opposition and the Centre to blame each other for disruptions due to protests over the Pegasus snooping row and the three farm laws.

“I want to appeal again that IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has given a detailed statement in both Houses. Unfortunately, they (the opposition members) are making an issue out of a non-issue and have been not been allowing to run the parliament since 7 or 8 days,” Joshi said.

He added that there are many other “important people-related issues” for which the government is ready for discussion. “Bills are also an important issue. The government also does not want them to be passed without a discussion… our stand (on this) is very clear,” Joshi said.

The government has been able to clear just a fraction of its legislative agenda due to the disruptions. On Friday, four key bills were introduced and one legislation, the Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was passed before the Houses were adjourned for the day. The LS was scheduled to take up discussion on Covid-19 but it could not be taken up.

The DICGC (Amendment) Bill, The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, The LLP (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas Bill were introduced.