Lok Sabha adjourned over Opposition stir

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha proceedings on Wednesday were marked by continuous protests by livid Congress members who kicked up quite a din over a range of issues, including the suspension of six of its MPs, resulting in the House being adjourned for the day at about 3:45 pm before being adjourned twice in the day.

Slogans like “Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply)”, “Jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste)”, “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai” by Congress MPs rented the air for most part of the day as they stood in the Well of the House.

On the suspension of six Congress MPs, the members, including K.C. Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, also shouted “Speaker saheb, nyay karo (Speaker, do justice).” At one point of time, they were also joined by members of Trinamul Congress. But the House took up the Question Hour and proceeded partially with the Zero Hour before debating and passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017 amid the din.

As soon as the bill was passed in the afternoon, minister of state for finance Arjun Ram Meghwal initiated a discussion on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was listed in the day’s agenda.

This bill has been listed for discussion since last week. As the din continued, deputy speaker M. Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day at about 3:45 pm.

Defending the Speaker’s decision to suspend six Congress MPs on Monday, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar asked: “Why is the Congress doing a walk in, walk out...They will be walked out (sic) from all over,” while criticising the Congress members for throwing papers towards the Chair.

“It is highly condemnable. They should have apologised,” he added.

As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of cow vigilantism but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said he would not be allowed to raise any issue during the Question Hour.

After the Question Hour, the Congress members continued to protest and sought to raise various issues ranging from lynchings in the name of protecting cows to the agrarian crisis and the farmers’ plight.

As external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj rose to make a statement on the Indians missing in Mosul city of Iraq, Congress members were unrelenting and Kharge was heard saying that they wanted to raise issues relating to mob lynching and farmers.