NEW DELHI: Opposition today attacked the government over its decision to extend the Lok Sabha session for three days and termed the move “dictatorial”, with many members objecting to the news being reported in the media even when the House was unaware of it.
Government rejected the criticism saying the decision follows similar precedents, but acknowledged that leaders of some parties could not be informed yesterday as the Rajya Sabha worked till late evening and many ministers, including Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, were busy there.
Congress, the Left and TMC members were most vociferous in their protests and Lok Sabha was adjourned thrice as their members trooped into the Well time and again to protest the manner in which the decision was taken.
Raising slogans like ‘tanashahi nahin chalegi’ (dictatorship will not be tolerated) and ‘Modi sarkar jawab do’ (Modi govt explain), the opposition members said they were not consulted on the matter.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ruled that the House had been extended till May 13 after the Business Advisory Committee today approved the decision taken by the government yesterday.
She also allowed the opposition members to raise the issue in the Zero Hour.
“It’s a unilateral decision. The House was not taken into confidence, nor was the opposition. They (govt) take a decision and impose it on the BAC. This is dictatorship. This dictatorship will not be allowed in a democracy,” Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said as he raised the matter.
Attacking the government for creating an impression that the opposition was causing obstruction and not interested in running the House, he said they have been cooperative and therefore many bills could be passed during the session.
Questioning why the Modi government took the decision to extend the House at the last minute when it was aware about the business it needed to transact, Kharge said “the consent of the House was not taken… You (Speaker) don’t know, we don’t know, but the press knows it.”
Amid the row over extension of the session, Tathagata Satpathy (BJD) said Parliament should have a special session to pay tribute to B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution, in the year of his 125th anniversary.
Supporting him, Prem Singh Chandumajra (SAD) said the session could be named after the Dalit icon.
The BJD leader argued that the government should have taken a decision earlier as members have their engagements lined up in their constituencies. “I am sure even (Speaker) Sumitra Mahajan will like to go to her constituency.”
The House witnessed brief verbal duel between Congress and treasury benches after Naidu referred to Kharge as a “good boy”. As the opposition members protested, the Minister said there should be some repartee in the House.
“He is a good man, very good man, very good elderly man,” he said, drawing smile from some members including Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
P Venugopal (AIADMK) said his party has no problem with the extension. This found support from leaders of TDP, TRS and YSR Congress.
Sudip Bandhopadhyay (Trinamool Congress) said they got to know about the extension of the Lok Sabha from news channels.
He said it should not be a precedent.
P Karunakaran (CPI-M) objected to the extension.
Defending the move, Naidu said governments are often accused of working to curtail the session but they were extending it. “Is working a sin?”
He claimed that no minister briefed media about the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs to extend the session.
“Media has its own way of functioning. Sometime they say the House is going to see uproar, bedlam…,” he said.
Parliament has been extended earlier without the BAC being informed, he said, adding that he was not justifying it.
Government has extended the House to transact some important legislative business, including passage of important bills like Land Bill.
When the House re-assembled at 2.20 PM, Kharge raised a point of order demanding that allegations made against Rahul Gandhi by BJP member Kirit Somaiya be expunged. Other Congress members joined him to protest against the remarks.
Kharge alleged that the BJP member “who has nothing to do with the subject” raised by Gandhi had made “defamatory, insulting and unparliamentary” language against the Congress Vice President and demanded that the entire speech be expunged.
Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai said since the speech referred to happened earlier when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was presiding over, he would bring the matter to her notice.
Dissatisfied with the response, Congress members trooped into the Well shouting “we want justice”.
Kharge added that “such things should not be allowed to become a practice. Such ‘hit-and-run’ tactics … that you humiliate a member and run away, should not be allowed.”
Somaiya had earlier referred to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in the House yesterday in which he blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a decision not to proceed with a food park plan in his Amethi constituency and accused him of misleading the House on the issue.
Law Minister Sadananda Gowda said if anything unparliamentary was used, the Speaker could decide and expunge them.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Mahajan had assured that any unparliamentary word would be removed.
Congress members then took Rudy to task, accusing him of “misquoting” the Speaker and angry exchanges continued.
Thambidurai said he would raise the entire issue with the Speaker who would take a decision and adjourned the House for 20 minutes as the din continued. -PTI
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