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New Delhi, February 3
Speaker Om Birla adjourned the Lok Sabha for the day after Opposition MPs refused to pay heed to his repeated requests to allow the House to function.
Union minister Arjun Meghwal said it was the “Constitutional duty” of MPs to thank the President for his address while Birla again said that he will give Opposition MPs time to raise their issues “The Zero Hour is an important time… You have not been sent for slogan shouting and clapping…people in your constituencies are watching you,” Birla told the Opposition MPs
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said they want the discussion on Presidential address. But they also wanted to raise farmers’ issues before the discussion on the Budget.
“We will continue to raise voice for farmers,” he said.
Announcing the adjournment of the House barely a couple of minutes after it had reassembled at 9 pm, Birla said “you do not want to speak, otherwise you will go back to your seats”.
Earlier in the day, Divisions in Congress strategy in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha came to the fore with the lower house remaining disrupted over demand for discussion on farmers’ issues but the upper house proceeding with a debate on the Motion of Thanks on President’s address.
“Just as we reached a consensus to award 15 hours for the President’s address debate in Rajya Sabha, we arrived at a similar consensus for Lok Sabha also. Both I and the Speaker spoke to opposition leaders before the LS started today and there was an agreement to first discuss the President’s address which is a priority. The opposition agreed in the meetings to start the debate and they have now flipped. We do not know why,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.
The Congress led opposition sought repeal of farm laws and raised “take back black laws” slogans.
LS Speaker Om Birla’s appeals to let the question hour run did not cut ice.
Earlier, Congress MP Manish Tewari and several other opposition MPs moved adjournment notices to discuss farmers issues.
The notices were disallowed.
In RS, Ghulam nabai Azad and Anand Sharma, both part of the dissenting group of Congressmen who earlier sought radical reforms in the party organization, are the party’s floor leaders in RS.
