Departing from practice, RS adjourned to respect Sangma

Deviating from normal practice, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day after Question Hour on Friday as a mark of respect to former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, who died in New Delhi on Friday morning.

Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House for the day soon after Question Hour when leaders of various parties urged him for the same so that they may visit Sangma’s residence to pay their last respects before his mortal remains were flown to Meghalaya.

Earlier, the chairman posed questions before the House, mentioning earlier instances of adjournment in such cases, saying the norm was to adjourn only when a sitting member of the Upper House passed away.

"We all have very great respect for Mr Sangma and his stature. He was a sitting member of the other House. Our practice in this House has been to adjourn when a sitting member passes away. We do it for a sitting member of this House," he said.

"If we are going to deviate from it, is it a one-time deviation? Because only the other day, a few days ago, I read a reference from the chair for a former speaker of Lok Sabha, that is the late Dr Balram Jakhar. I don’t want different practices to become the norm," Ansari said.

"Are we doing it as a very special gesture over and above our practice? If that is the sense of the House, then we will do it. In other words, we will not reconvene after lunch," he told the members after leaders of various parties, including Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, suggested adjournment.

Leader of the House Arun Jaitley suggested that in view of Sangma’s demise in Delhi, a number of members would like to visit his residence and pay their last respects.

"I would suggest disposing of or postponing the post-lunch session as a mark of respect to him. He was an important leader of the country," he said suggesting a one-time departure.

He was seconded by Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, who said Sangma was 'one of the tallest leaders in the recent past from the Northeast. It would be appropriate to adjourn the House as a mark of respect for him'.

Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India-Marxist) also urged the chairman to consider the request of both Jaitley and Azad and suggested rescheduling the private member's business to some other day.

Ansari said the original practice of adjourning the House was when the funeral of the sitting member was in Delhi.

"That was diluted over a period of years. I won’t go into the details. There is a proposal which is pending before one committee or the other that we should go back to the original practice, because the intent was to enable members to participate. I don't want different practices for different leaders," the chairman said.