New Delhi: The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on Monday amid a stand-off between the government and the opposition over Rahul Gandhi’s demand that he be allowed to speak before the discussion on the Union Budget begins.
When the House met at 2 pm after two adjournments, Sandhya Ray, who was in the Chair, asked Congress member Shashi Tharoor to initiate the debate on the Budget.
Tharoor told the Chair that Gandhi, being the Leader of Opposition (LoP), should be allowed to raise certain points before he starts his speech.
Ray said she had no issues if Gandhi wanted to speak on the Budget and asked him to begin.
Gandhi said at a meeting between Speaker Om Birla and some opposition MPs, an agreement was reached that he would be allowed to raise certain points before the Budget discussion, but the Chair was now reneging on its word.
Ray said she was not aware of any such agreement and that she could not allow anyone to raise any issue without notice.
At this point, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju intervened, saying there was no such agreement and if the LoP wanted to say something about the Speaker, then Birla should also be present in the House to respond.
Rijiju also said other members of the House would also speak on the subject and there would be a broader discussion.
With neither side budging from its position, Ray adjourned the House for the day.
The Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned twice earlier — once at 11 am when the business of the day began and again after a few minutes of proceedings at 12 noon.
At 11 am, as the House took up Question Hour, opposition members started raising issues which they demanded should be addressed immediately.
Birla, who was in the Chair, said these issues could be raised during the discussion on the Union Budget. He said members, including the LoP, were free to speak during the debate.
With the opposition members not relenting, Birla slammed them for “planned” disruptions and asked them to let the House run according to rules.
As the protests over various issues continued, the Speaker adjourned the House proceedings briefly.
At 12 noon, when the House reassembled, opposition parties insisted that Gandhi be allowed to speak before the House took up the discussion on the Budget.
As Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the Chair, called Tharoor to initiate the debate on the Budget, opposition members dug in their heels and demanded that Gandhi be allowed to speak first.
Tenneti underlined that the discussion was on the Budget and the Congress had given Tharoor’s name as its lead speaker.
He said he would need to get clarity on whether the LoP could be allowed to speak. He also asked Gandhi whether he wanted to speak on the Budget.
Tharoor, meanwhile, said he yields to the LoP.
As the stalemate continued, Tenneti adjourned the House till 2 pm.
After the House was adjourned for the day, Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex that Gandhi wanted to respond to allegations that Congress MPs wanted to carry out an “unexpected act” in the Lok Sabha when the prime minister was to come last week to respond to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s January 28 address to both Houses of Parliament.
He said a clarification was required on the part of the LoP.
The Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions since February 3, after Gandhi was disallowed by the Chair from quoting from an article based on excerpts of former Army chief M M Naravane’s “unpublished memoir”, which has references to the India-China conflict of 2020.
On February 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks due to opposition protests.
In an unprecedented move, the Motion of Thanks was passed on February 5 without the customary speech by the PM.
The Speaker read out the Motion of Thanks to the President for her address and it was passed by a voice vote, amid sloganeering by opposition members.
Birla had also said that he received concrete information that many Congress MPs could carry out an “unexpected act” by reaching the spot where PM Modi sits and therefore, he asked him not to come to the House to deliver his address.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra refuted this.
“It is an absolute lie. There is no question of anybody raising hands on the prime minister, trying to hurt him or any such thing. There is no question. So, it is absolutely wrong for anybody to say that there was any such plan, there was no such plan,” she had said outside the House.
The discussion on the Budget was listed for February 5, but could not be initiated due to the stand-off between the government and the opposition. The stalemate continued the next day as well. The House met on Monday after the weekend break.
