The Rajya Sabha resumed with demands of obituary references for the martyred Nagrota soldiers and apology from PM Modi for his comments on the opposition.
TMC MP Derek O’Brien said that the opposition wants to hold a debate but only when PM Modi has tendered an apology to the Opposition.
Rajya Sabha speaker PJ Kurien said the obituary will be given at an appropriate time.
Dissatisfied with the Speaker’s response the Opposition started sloganeering to “Jai jawan, jai kisaan.”
Kurien finally adjourned the House till Thursday.
Despite the Speaker’s best efforts to to keep the Lok Sabha running amidst the commotion, the lower House has been adjourned till Thursday.
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Sumitra Mahajan Clarifies Not Making Obituary Reference Was Her Decision
In the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that the opposition’s criticism for not making an obituary reference was not directed at her but at the government.
Rules 388 and 389 gives you the power to suspend MPs and you can suspend them if you wish to. We want to start the discussion under rule 56 of the Parliament but they don’t want to engage. It’s undesirable that 11 days into the winter session, we haven’t moved forward. We don’t want to run away from a debateMallikarjun Kharge
To this, the Speaker said that the decision to hold the obituary reference until the combing operation was over was “entirely my (her) decision, not the government’s”.
I said the combing operation is on, that was my own opinion, it was not the government’s. I have been giving obituaries, please don’t accuse me of defending the government. I will defend you too if the need arises.
While the opposition wanted to raise the Nagrota attack issue under Rule 56, which allows an MP to raise an urgent issue, the government demanded that the issue be raised under Rule 193. According to this rule, any member who wants raise a discussion on a matter of urgent public importance will have to give notice in writing to the LS Secretary-General.
Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm after an uproar in the House as the opposition raised the Nagrota attack and demonetisation issue.
Parliament Didn’t Honour Martyrs: Rahul Gandhi
Outside Parliament, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi told media persons:
As per tradition, Parliament honours martyred soldiers, but today they were not honoured. That’s why we walked out.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu criticised the opposition for halting the proceedings of Parliament despite the fact that the Prime Minister was present in the House as per the demands of the opposition.
Nobody knows why they left the Lok Sabha. They raised the issue of Nagrota, we told them about the combing operations. They demanded an obituary reference, we said the Speaker will give the obituary reference at a suitable time. But they walked out and then came back in the House after a minute. It’s extremely unfortunate that the Congress is only creating a ruckus and not letting Parliament function. I don’t know who is advising them to behave like this. They are politicising Nagrota. People will hate this politics. They are intolerant of the PM’s growing popularity.