NEW DELHI: Parliament was adjourned on the first day of the winter session today amid protests by the Opposition over billionaire Gautam Adani’s indictment by a US court and violence at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh.
While the Lok Sabha did not transact any business, papers were laid in the Rajya Sabha before it was adjourned for the day. Both issues found an echo outside Parliament also even as the Centre and the Opposition launched verbal barbs at each other.
PM Narendra Modi set the tone for the day when he attacked the Congress by saying that those rejected by the people “80-90 times” were disrupting Parliament for their personal gains. He said this during his customary address before the media on the commencement of the winter session of Parliament.
On the Sambhal issue, Samajwadi Party chief and Lok Sabha MP Akhilesh Yadav alleged outside Parliament that the riots were the doing of the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh Government. AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the violence in Sambhal and sought action against the police personnel allegedly involved in the killing of four persons during the protests there. He also sought a judicial inquiry into the incident.
With Parliament set to observe Constitution Day tomorrow with a function to mark the 75th anniversary of its adoption by the Constituent Assembly, the opposition Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) today demanded a two-day discussion on the Constitution during a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), attacking the Centre for “only offering lip service to the values enshrined in the Constitution”.
The issue was raised by Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi and TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee at the BAC meeting, where Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Commerce Minister and Lok Sabha MP Piyush Goyal represented the government.
The Opposition also objected to the fact that the Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses — Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha and Mallikarjun Kharge in the Rajya Sabha — had not been included as speakers for the Constitution Day function. However, the government responded by saying that the PM would also not address the function.
President Droupadi Murmu and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar will address the event. Meanwhile, at 11 am, when the Lok Sabha convened for the day, Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till noon, within five minutes after reading out the obituary references.
Among the departed leaders who were remembered during the obituary references were two sitting MPs who had won the Lok Sabha poll this year.
At noon, when the Lower House reconvened, BJP MP Sandhya Ray, who was on the Chair, adjourned the House for the day within a minute, even as Samajwadi Party MPs descended to the well, shouting slogans against the Centre and raising the Sambhal issue, where violent incidents led to the death of four persons after protests against a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha proceedings were also adjourned for the day as opposition parties, led by the Congress, tried to raise the issue of the indictment of Adani Group founder chairman Gautam Adani and others by a US court. Soon after the listed papers were laid on the table of the House and obituary references read out on the death of former MPs, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he had received 13 notices under Rule 267, but was not convinced to accept these.
Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was among the seven MPs who had sought a discussion on the Adani bribery issue, said if the listed business was suspended, the opposition parties could explain how the “very important” issue was impacting the entire country.
The image of the country had been tarnished globally and yet PM Modi was supporting Adani, he alleged.
At this point, Dhankhar ordered that nothing that Kharge said would go on record. He then adjourned the House. Parliament will reconvene on November 27 as there will be no business tomorrow. Parliament will hold a special event in the Central Hall of the old Parliament building tomorrow to launch the year-long celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly.