Lok Sabha adjourned amid ruckus over suspension of MPs

On Tuesday, the Lower House saw another virtual washout after Congress members created an uproar over the suspension of six of its members.

READ: Opposition unites to protest against suspension of 6 Congress MPs

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day, virtually without transacting any substantial business, after Congress members created an uproar over a range of issues, including remarks made by certain Bharatiya Janata Party MPs against its leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and the revocation of suspension of six of its members.

Congress and opposition parties were also demanding a discussion on the lynching incidents in the country in the name of cow protection.

Scindia said BJP MPs Veerendra Kumar and Nandkumar Singh Chouhan had levelled certain allegations against him pertaining to the Dalit community.

He said if these remarks were found to be true, then he would quit as the member of the House and demanded that if the BJP leaders failed to prove their allegation, then they should tender their resignations.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, defended Scindia and said the Guna MP has been fighting for the well-being of the Dalits in the House over the last 15 years.

As Congress members, including Scindia, Kantilal Bhuria, K C Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, rushed to the Well, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she was trying to accommodate everyone by allowing them to ventilate their concerns.

However, members from the treasury benches also vociferously responded to the Congress charge, leading to a ruckus in the House.

This led Mahajan to warn the members that if any one of the officials or the Secretary General are harmed by mistake, then consequences would not be good.

Anguished over the unruly scenes, the Speaker said “If you are bent upon creating a ruckus, how will the House run? I have told you to raise your concerns under the rules ... Don’t try to teach me (how to run the House)”.

Kharge said the opposition also wants the House to function. He also accused Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar of trying to “pour petrol into the fire”.

As the din continued, Mahajan adjourned the House for the day.

Soon after the House had reassembled at 3 pm, the Speaker ordered the listed papers to be laid.

The ruckus began soon after she took up the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017, and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar moved the legislation for consideration and passage.

Earlier, the House was adjourned till 3.00 pm within minutes after it had assembled at 11 am to allow members to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of Ram Nath Kovind as the 14th President of India.

The proceedings, which were slated to run for some time, was adjourned as opposition members mounted noisy protests over cow vigilantes and lynching incidents.

The Speaker decided to adjourn the proceedings almost immediately, saying “You don’t want the House to function...as it is, I am adjourning the House to allow members and ministers participate in the oath taking of the 14th President and other ceremonies.”

As soon as the Question Hour was taken up at 11 am, Kharge raised the issue of cow vigilantism and the “repeated” incidents of lynching in the name of cow protection, sparking the uproar.

Incidentally, the first question the House was to take up was “whether it is a fact that 99.19 per cent cows and 99 per cent oxen are productive in the country”. While the question was being read out, the minister could not give an answer and the proceedings were adjourned.