‘House extended without notice’: Oppn stalls Rajya Sabha amid quota debate

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed multiple disruptions by Opposition parties leading to several adjournments. The winter session functioning of Rajya Sabha had been extended by one day by the government in order to get multiple big-ticket Bills passed by the Upper House.

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed multiple disruptions by Opposition parties leading to several adjournments. The winter session functioning of the Rajya Sabha had been extended by one day by the government in order to get multiple big-ticket Bills passed by the Upper House.

Among the key bills that the government is hoping to get cleared by the Rajya Sabha are the Triple Talaq Bill, the Constitutional Amendment bill to introduce 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections of the general category and the Citizenship Bill. (PTI)

Among the key bills that the government is hoping to get cleared by the Rajya Sabha are the Triple Talaq Bill, the Constitutional Amendment bill to introduce 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections of the general category and the Citizenship Bill.

On its last day of functioning during the Winter Session, the Rajya Sabha saw unruly scenes by the Opposition parties which claimed that the government had extended the session by one day without a discussion with the Opposition parties and claimed that this was disregard of the procedures laid down for Parliamentary proceedings.

“There was no direction from the chairman. There was no notification, no announcement but a bulletin was issued at 7pm. This is disregard of Parliamentary proceedures,” Trinamool Congress’s Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said.

“You issued a bulletin the dead of the night. This is unprecedented,” Ray said.

Follow live updates here: ‘Congress backs quota bill in Lok Sabha, opposes it here’ says BJP; House adjourned till 2pm

Vijay Goel, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, countered Ray saying that the members’ concern should be that the Rajya Sabha’s working days were wasted due to commotion. “Government wants to extend functioning of the House by a day as there are important bills to be passed,” Goel said.

“You are worried about why the House’s Session was extended by one day when we should be discussing important bills such as the quota bill,” Goel said.

At the same time, deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh said that the decision to extend the Winter Session of the Rajya Sabha was taken in the Business Advisory Committee meeting in which many Opposition leaders were also present. Congress’s Anand Sharma countered this by saying that there was no unanimous decision on extending the Rajya Sabha’s session.

“There was no discussion on Rafale and other notices we had given. The government should be blamed if the House stops functioning. The way the House proceedings were extended without the consent of the opposition parties was not right. The situation now is such that there is no dialogue between the Opposition and the government. The government is responsible if the House doesn’t function,” Sharma said.

Raising the bogey of violence in the Northeast, Sharma said, “The Northeast is burning. It concerns the safety and security of our nation. The Home minister must answer,” Anand Sharma said.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley responded to the Opposition and said that the country expected the House to function. “As per normal working days, we should have been working. On most of them, the House stood adjourned. There is one extra day to consider legislations,” Jaitley said.

This was followed by an uproar by the Opposition parties forcing the Deputy Chairman to adjourn the House for half an hour.

When the House resumed after half an hour, Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot tabled the Quota Bill saying, “Our Constitution does not allow reservation on economic basis. Therefore, many poor people of general category miss out on opportunities.”

Even before the discussion on the Bill could gather steam, Congress’s Madhusudan Mistry claimed that the Bill is not complete. “Can’t have voting and introdution of Bill on same day. What is the urgency?” Mistry said.

Vijay Goel responded to this saying that the Congress is raising technical issues to stop the Bill. “If you openly oppose the Bill, it’s different, otherwise, let’s discuss the Bill as it has already been introduced,” Goel said.

Congress’s Anand Sharma responded to this saying that the government should specify how the time allocated to discuss a constitution amendment. “You are doing this (introducing the Quota bill) for politics, we can see through it,” Sharma said.

Subsequently, the Opposition parties created a furore in the Well of the House, forcing the Deputy chairman to adjourn the house again.