New Delhi: Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings adjourned for the day on Monday, December 9, over allegations of George Soros-Congress link and Adani issue led to repeated disruptions in the Parliament.
When the Lok Sabha met at 11 am after the weekend, the opposition members were on their feet, trying to raise their issues. A visibly agitated Speaker Om Birla asked the MPs to go back to their seats and allow the House to function.
“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 and adjourned the House till 12 noon.
The noisy protests again forced an adjournment till 2 pm and then till 3 pm before the proceedings were wrapped for the day.
As soon as the House re-convened at noon, Congress members trooped into the well of the Lok Sabha 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 BJP member Nishikant Dubey 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 TMC and 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 raised the issue of farmers. He was heard saying “Pure desh ka kisan pareshan hai“, meaning that the entire country is in perils.
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 House 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 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.
Rajya Sabha adjourned
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Monday amid uproar over the BJP accusing top Congress leaders of colluding with billionaire investor George Soros to destabilise the country, with Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar cautioning that “functioning of the deep state affects us more perniciously than the Covid disease”.
Amid uproar by treasury and opposition benches when the Upper House re-assembled at 3 pm after three adjournments earlier in the day, Chairman Dhankhar informed that a meeting was held in his chamber between the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition.
“The purpose of that meeting was to ensure that the House runs smoothly. Both sides had a frank discussion and they signalled two things. One, that integrity, and sovereignty of the nation are sacred for us. We cannot allow any forces within the country or outside to sacrilege our unity, our integrity and our sovereignty,” Dhankhar said, adding that the leaders have agreed to meet in his chamber again at 10:30 am on Tuesday.
The Chairman then appealed to all members to carefully consider the oath of the Constitution they have taken to ensure the integrity of the nation on a priority basis.
“Any challenge to the unity and integrity of the nation from within or outside requires all of us to offer a united challenge … It is a challenge to our very existence. We as a nation are committed to fighting the sinister forces, the forces that are inimical to India… a deep state that is evolving is required to be neutralised by all of us,” he said.
Dhankhar further appealed to members to share the sentiments of the 1.4 billion people at large who are extremely concerned that all divisive forces, all forces that are pernicious to the concept of Bharat, all forces that have a sinister design to run down our democracy, to bring down our progress, to impede our economic upsurge have to be defeated by us.
He said the sentiment shared by the people has to emanate from the House, and at this critical moment when the country is facing such challenges, it must send a united voice so that these forces are defeated.
The Chairman cautioned that we cannot afford to overlook such evil designs, asserting that the “functioning of the deep state affects us more perniciously than the Covid disease”, before adjourning the Upper House for the day.
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