New Delhi: An assertive Congress on Wednesday refused to heed to government’s repeated requests to first take up a legislative business in Parliament and then debate its issues of differently-sized new currency notes and the Chandigarh stalking case, involving the son of BJP’s Haryana unit chief Subhash Barala. Congress members kept shouting slogans “Farzi noton ki sarkar nahin chalegi” and “Beti bachao BJP bhagao” in the Rajya Sabha, leading to two adjournments before it was adjournment for the day. Though the government made an effort to pass the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which would replace the NPA ordinance promulgated on May 7 this year, in the din, its efforts remained unfruitful as many Opposition members opposed it saying it is a very important bill and they need to highlight some issues regarding it. Even deputy chairman P J Kurien made several efforts to placate Congress members, who kept shouting slogans and demanded that their issues should be taken up first, instead of the bill.
The BJP has issued a whip to its members in the Upper House for Thursday when the bill will be taken up.
Raising the issue after the House reassembled after the lunch break, Congress’s Kapil Sibal claimed that te RBI has specification for its currency notes, which is also available on its website, currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 are available in four different sizes. Mr Sibal said perhaps India is the only country where same currency notes are available in different sizes.
The Congress had on Tuesday alleged that post-demonetisation, two different sizes of currency notes are available, one for the government and the other for the ruling party. Congress demanded that finance minister Arun Jaitley should give an explanation. Mr Sibal raised the issue through a rule which demanded suspension of the business which the Chair rejected but allowed him to speak briefly about his notice.
Congress members then trooped into the Well of the House raising slogans.
TMC’s Derek O Brien then suggested that the Chair has the power to convert the notice into a Calling Attention and the House can discuss the issue. However, government managers said that the House should first take up the bill, leading to slogan shouting by the Congress members. The Chair then adjourned the House for 15 minutes. When the House reassembled, Congress’s Kumari Selja raised the Chandigarh incident and said instead of “beto bachao,” Haryana’s BJP government is busy in “beta bachao”. Treasury benches protested and requested the Chair to take up the bill in the din. The government managed to clear a statutory resolution on increase in basic customs duty (BCD) to 10 per cent on import of mobile phones, printers and ink cartridges, in the din. The Chair adjourned the House again.
Consensus eluded on running of the House even after the leaders of the two sides met in the presence of Prof. Kurien to break the deadlock. Those who attended the meeting after the second adjournment included Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Leader
of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Kumari Selja.
When the House resasembeled, the din continued. Congress deputy leader Anand Sharma said Chandigarh being a Union Territory was directly administered by the home minister who
should come to the House and give a statement on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Chandigarh Police in its report to the home ministry has informed that the two accused in the case had refused to undergo blood and urine test to ascertain if they were drunk or not. However, the government doctor who was called to the police station informed the local police that both the accused were smelling of alcohol.
Police claimed that refusal for blood and urine test would go against the accused persons though a breath analyzer test confirmed that they had consumed alcohol.
Chandigarh Police in its report to the Centre has also mentioned that they have pressed charges of stalking section 365 read with section 511 attempt to abduct with intent to wrongful confinement.
Home minister Rajnath Singh had sought a detailed report from the Chandigarh Police on the incident. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi personally spoke to senior officials of the Chandigarh Police to get feedback on the investigations conducted so far in the case.
