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Rajya Sabha adjourned without transacting any business amid Oppn protests
The Upper House earlier saw two adjournments during the pre-lunch period, before it was finally adjourned within minutes of meeting at 2 PM.
Soon after the House met, Deputy Chairman Harivansh announced the name of Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to move a motion for consideration of The Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, 2025.
Opposition members were on their feet, raising slogans in support of their demands, the Chair urged them to go back to their seats.
As unrelenting members continued to create ruckus, Harivansh adjourned the House for the day.
The Rajya Sabha will now meet at 11 AM on Wednesday.
The House was adjourned twice during the first half, after Opposition MPs disrupted proceeding demanding discussions on Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Soon after the House met for the day and after the listing of papers, Opposition members were on their feet raising slogans in support of their demands including a discussion of Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, besides on the Bihar SIR issue.
Several Opposition members including those from the Congress had given adjournment notices for suspending the day's business and holding an immediate discussion on the SIR issue.
CPI member P Sandosh Kumar had given a notice to discuss the "unexpected and unprecedented" resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar..
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Nadda very surprisingly charged that Kharge shared all the details of Operation Sindoor and asserted by saying, 'Whatever I will say will go on record. You should know", implying that nothing the opposition said would be recorded. Those remarks were not expunged by Dhankhar. This clearly indicated that the opposition leaders might face hurdles while participating in the discussions on Operation Sindoor in the Parliament. Earlier unenviable record of presiding officers Even earlier, the roles played by presiding officers, Birla and Dhankhar in 2023 in not allowing opposition leaders to speak was remarked upon scathingly by editorials of The Hindu and Indian Express. The Hindu editorial titled 'Discipline and discussion' said' … Parliament is the forum where the government is answerable to the people' sharply charging that the decision of the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, and the Speaker of Lok Sabha to expunge parts of the speeches of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi made in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively on the Adani issue constituted a travesty of democracy. It noted, 'Parliament is the platform where the Opposition has the responsibility to ask questions of the government, which the Council of Ministers has the responsibility to answer'. It proceeded to indict the presiding officers by stating that it would be a mockery of democratic values '…if the Opposition is penalised for seeking accountability from the government, which in turn is allowed to hide behind rules and obfuscate the issue.' The Indian Express, in its editorial very derisively wrote, 'By engaging in what looks like a partisan political exercise against the Opposition, V.P. Dhankar undermines the parliament, his office.' During the 17th Lok Sabha, several opposition MPs found it difficult to discharge their duties as effective legislators due to the restrictions they faced while participating in the discussions in the House. When a no-confidence motion was moved by the opposition parties against the Narendra Modi government and raging violence in Manipur was discussed, two MPs, R.K. Ranjan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was a minister of state for external affairs in the Modi cabinet, and Lorho S. Pfoze of the Naga People's Front (supporting the Modi government), were told to keep quiet because the Union home minister Amit Shah was speaking on behalf of the government. Later Pfoze, while speaking to Barkha Dutt, said with anguish, 'The government should have first asked me to speak even if I didn't make a formal request. I wanted to speak on behalf of my people.' He also remarked that fifty of the questions he asked on Manipur were not taken up, except one on education. Those examples show how the presiding officers did not allow opposition MPs to speak up and even some of the ruling party members were prevented from speaking when the Modi regime faced embarrassing situations in the context of Manipur violence. In fact the post of deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha, which by convention is held by the opposition, has remained unfilled for six years; this too shows the ruling party's disregard for parliamentary norms. So the use of services of opposition leaders on Operation Sindoor must be accompanied by allowing them to speak to hold the government to account on the floor of the parliament. S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to former President KR Narayanan. He was earlier joint secretary in the Rajya Sabha secretariat. This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
