New Delhi: Opposition’s protests over allegations of George Soros-Congress link and Adani issue rocked the Lok Sabha on Monday leading to adjournment of proceedings without transacting any significant business.
The noisy protests in the House, which also saw opposition members submitting notices to move a privilege motion against a BJP member for remarks targeting Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, led to repeated adjournments till 3 pm before the proceedings were called off for the day.
Opposition members were in the well of the House when the Lok Sabha convened at 11 am and a visibly upset Speaker Om Birla adjourned the proceedings till noon.
“Question Hour is significant. Allow the House to function properly. But you don’t want to allow the House to run. The country wants the House to run. You are disrupting the proceedings of the House,” he told the protesting members before adjourning the proceedings.
The noisy protests again forced an adjournment till 2 pm and then till 3 pm, before the proceedings were wrapped up for the day.
As soon as the House re-convened at noon, Congress members trooped into the well, raising slogans against the government. They were soon joined by Samajwadi Party members.
Congress members were also heard saying that they had submitted notices to move a privilege motion against a BJP member for attempts to link Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi with US-based billionaire George Soros-backed outfits allegedly involved in anti-India activities.
Opposition members raised slogans like “Modi Sarkar down down”, “Modi Sarkar shame shame” and “we want justice”, as BJP member Sandhya Ray, who was in the chair, took up tabling of parliamentary papers.
Opposition members from the RJD were seen standing in the aisle or near their seats in support of the protest. TMC members, including Saugatha Roy, Kalyan Banerjee and Mahua Moitra, were sitting on their seats.
SP member Dharmendra Yadav also raised the issue of farmers. He was heard saying “Pure desh ka kisan pareshan hai”.
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was present in the House during the protests.
After the parliamentary papers were tabled in the House, Ray informed the members that notices given by Congress leaders were under consideration by Birla.
As the protests continued, the Chair adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm but the scenes were no different when the House met again.
Ray, who was in the chair, asked Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav to respond to the discussion on the Rail (Amendment) Bill 2024. However, the opposition protests continued following which the proceedings were adjourned for an hour again.
The opposition was unrelenting and Ray adjourned the House for the day after it met at 3.
The proceedings of the House were washed out in the first week of the winter session starting November 25 due to protests by opposition members demanding discussion on issues like the indictment of industrialist Gautam Adani in a US court and Sambhal violence.
Last week, the House functioned properly for only two days — Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Thursday, BJP member Nishikant Dubey sought to draw some linkages between a foreign billionaire investor and a section of opposition leaders and claimed an international conspiracy was afoot to derail India’s success story under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi and others tried to counter the allegations levelled by Dubey, leading to turmoil and adjournment of the House.
