Attempts by the Presiding Officers of both Houses of Parliament to break the deadlock between the Treasury and Opposition benches did not succeed on Tuesday, leading to speculation that the Budget Session could be truncated ahead of its April 6 schedule.
At a meeting of floor leaders of the Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla asked both sides to let go off the contentious issues — the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) insistence on an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged “anti-India” remarks and the Opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into in the Adani-Hindenburg episode.
Sources claimed that the government, represented by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, was ready to set aside their demand to let the House run for essential financial business that is pending.
Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, insisted that Mr. Gandhi be given the right to respond to the allegations made against him by senior Ministers, including Mr. Goyal, Mr. Joshi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
He argued that their allegations against the former Congress chief were now part of the Parliament record and that’s why Mr. Gandhi must get the right to respond.
As The Hindu reported on Tuesday morning, Mr. Chowdhury aggressive stance comes after Mr. Gandhi wrote to Mr. Birla to allow him under Rule 357 to respond to the “scurrilous” charges made against him by the Ministers.
When the government representatives at the meet pointed out that the former Congress chief had insulted the country by talking about Lok Sabha microphones being switched off and the state of democracy, Mr. Chowdhury is said to have countered by raising comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier during his trips abroad and suggested a debate even on the issue of microphones.
He, however, didn’t give any give any assurance on behalf of the Congress and blamed the BJP members for disrupting the House.
Shifting blame
Trinamool Congress Saugata Roy, however, blamed both the BJP and the Congress for not allowing the Parliament to function.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar called two meetings of the floor leaders of different political parties in the Upper House, but majority of the Opposition parties boycotted them as Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Malikarjun Kharge couldn’t speak on the floor of the House because of protests from the BJP benches.
Questioning Leader of the House Piyush Goyal’s statement that the Opposition had insulted the Chairman by boycotting his meeting, senior Congress member Jairam Ramesh said such a statement came from the leader a party whose members prevented Mr. Kharge from speaking twice even after the Chairman had permitted him.
“Silencing of LoP is also an issue quite apart from the JPC on Adani,” Mr. Ramesh said.
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat said in a release that the Chairman underlined that it was the prime duty of the members to run the proceedings of the House in an orderly manner.
The first meeting was held at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday in which leaders of the BJP, the YSRCP, the BJD and the TDP were present.
“Thereafter, the Rajya Sabha Chairman made another appeal to the floor leaders of the parties, who were absent in the first meeting, to revisit their decision and attend the second meeting which was held at 2:30 pm today.”
The second meeting was attended by the NCP, the TRS, the DMK, the Trinamool Congress, the AIADMK, the BJD, the Tamil Maanila Congress, the AGP and the BJP.
Mr. Dhankhar has scheduled the next meeting at 10 a.m. on March 23.
