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Lok Sabha sees several adjournments, scuffles over Delhi riots
The House was adjourned several times and once after members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress pushed and shoved each other in the Lok Sabha.
The second phase of the Budget Session of Parliament opened to protests from the opposition parties on Monday with leaders demanding action in the riots in north-east Delhi, which has claimed more than 40 lives so far.
The House was adjourned several times and once after members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress pushed and shoved each other in the Lok Sabha.
Members of the Congress party, including its Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, Manickam Tagore and SU Thirunavukkarasar, pressed for adjournment motions, to discuss the Delhi riots which the party described as a “communal conflagration”.
In all, 23 notices of adjournment were filed by opposition members.
Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, then carried out a protest outside the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, demanding the resignation of Union home minister Amit Shah.
Members of the Trinamool Congress also protested outside the statue of Mahatma Gandhi before the House convened, where MPs blindfolded their eyes with black cloth.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) members, too, filed adjournment motions.
Once the House convened, several Opposition MPs rose to protest against the Delhi riots, demanding a discussion.
However, Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till 2pm after an obituary reference to JD(U) member from Bihar’s Valmiki Nagar Baidyanath Prasad Mahto, who died on February 28.
Later, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after the protest in the House led to jostling between opposition MPs and treasury benches.
But a revised notice said it was adjourned till 3pm.
Congress MP Ramya Haridas alleged she was hit by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jasleen Kaur and she went to complain to the Speaker with some of her women colleagues.
The House was adjourned till 4pm as a result.
Govt agenda
Government business in Lok Sabha includes the introduction of The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday (29 January) approved increasing the time limit for conducting a medical abortion from the current 20 weeks to 24 weeks and allowed the option for “special categories of women” that would include ‘vulnerable women’ such as rape survivors, victims of incest, differently-abled and minors.
The Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill will also be introduced.
Later in the day, the government plans to pass The Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill in the Lower House.
In Rajya Sabha, the government wants to pass the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill that aims to establish and incorporate Universities for teaching and research in Sanskrit.
Another important legislation, The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill will also be brought for passage.
The legislation aims a medical education system that improves access to quality and affordable medical education, ensures availability of adequate and high-quality professionals of Indian System of Medicine.
The Centre may also bring The National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill to promote high-quality Homoeopathy medical professionals in the Upper House.
Opposition plans
But this elaborate legislative agenda may hit a roadblock amid opposition plans to protest and bring adjournment motion on Delhi riots, demand Amit Shah’s resignation.
The Congress and other opposition parties also want to target the ruling dispensation over the economy and farmers’ plight.
The BJP has sounded ready to take on the Opposition.
Union minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday demanded strict action against those involved in the violence in north-east Delhi but claimed he was not involved in hate speech.
“From Monday, Parliament session will begin, questions are raised there also from economy to various other issues and on that platform, answers will be given on various matters,” Thakur said in Chandigarh.
Congress’ floor leader Adhir Chowdhury announced on Sunday that the party will “strongly raise” the issue of communal riots in Delhi and demand Shah’s resignation over alleged police lapses.
“The government has miserably failed to maintain law and order. I think there must be some sort of a nexus between the rioters and a section of police officials which resulted in gruesome killings and arson that has tarnished our image across the globe. This is a matter of serious concern for us,” he said.
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has already hit out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for instigating violence and questioning the rival party’s shifting policies.
Party’s senior leader in Rajya Sabha, Abhishek Singhvi, added that the “wanton destruction of democratic values” in this country with the “active approbation” and, frequently, the selective “Nelsonian blind eye” of the government will be taken up in the strongest possible terms.
“The country is assured that we will discharge our responsibilities vigorously and without fear, despite extreme and illegal intrusion and harassment,” Singhvi said.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has already set the tone by repeatedly demanding Shah’s resignation - first in a rare press conference after a meeting of the party’s working committee on Wednesday and then in her memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday.
The second phase of the budget session is scheduled from March 2 to April 3.
