Uproar in Rajya Sabha after charges against Chair expunged

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed commotion after deputy chairman P.J. Kurien ordered all “aspersions and allegations” against the Chair and “anything criticising the ruling of the Chair” to be expunged. This happened when SP’s Naresh Agarwal renewed Opposition’s demand to set up an all-party committee of Upper House to look into the issue of efforts to curtail the authority of the House.

Citing taxation amendment bill, which was passed in Lok Sabha amid ruckus on Tuesday, Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said is the “use of the money bill route” was being used “to deliberately bypass the Rajya Sabha.” He then went on to cite Aadhaar Bill and a private member on Andhra Pradesh when he suggested that “a new twist was given to Article 110...”

Objecting to remarks of Mr Ramesh and also former finance minister P. Chidambaram, where he urged the Chair to reconsider an earlier ruling on the private member bill. The Chair also ordered remarks against Leader of the House and finance minister Arun Jaitley by Mr Ramesh to be expunged.

“You cannot criticise the ruling...You cannot. That is expunged. Everything is expunged. You cannot criticise the ruling... You cannot criticise the ruling of the Chair...All aspersions and allegations are expunged. And anything criticising the ruling of the Chair is also expunged,” Prof. Kurien ruled.