As noisy Opposition protests demanding a discussion on demonetisation with voting continued in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, with the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan going through Zero Hour amid the din, BJP veteran L K Advani was seen engaged in an animated conversation with Parliamentary Affair Minister Ananth Kumar, expressing his displeasure at the way the House was being run.
As soon as the Speaker adjourned the House till 2 pm, an upset and visibly agitated Advani was heard saying loudly: “I am going to tell the Speaker that she is not running the House. I am going say this publicly. This is disgraceful. Neither the Speaker nor the Parliamentary Affairs Minister is running the House. Both sides (Treasury and Opposition) are party to this. The House is running on its own."
At this point, senior party colleagues Kumar and SS Ahluwalia were seen placating their senior, conscious of the fact that the media gallery was all ears.
Later, when asked for his comment on Advani’s outburst, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu told reporters that it was the “agony of a senior Palrimentarian and politician” as the House had been seeing repeated adjournments and noisy protests by the “chorus” being orchestrated by the Congress-Trinamool-Communists.
Naidu said the 89-year-old BJP veteran had told him that “if you (MPs) don’t work, then don’t draw salaries.”
So agitated was Advani that when the House was adjourned, he asked a Lok Sabha official till what time it had been adjourned. When told that it was till 2 pm he snapped: "Why not sine die?"
Kumar, however, told reporters that Advani was upset with the Opposition members, who have been shouting slogans against demonetisation in the Well of the House since the Winter session began on November 16. “He was angry with the Opposition,” he said, adding that the government had a discussion on the issue in Rajya Sabha, so why should it have a problem in Lok Sabha.
The Winter session has been seeing uproarious scenes in the Lok Sabha, with the Speaker not accepting their demand for an adjournment notice and a discussion on demonetisation under Rule 56 that entails voting. The government has made it clear that they are open to discussion under Rule 193 (short duration and no voting).
Last week, MPs belonging to 16 Opposition parties, including the Congress, had met President Pranab Mukherjee and requested him to hold back his assent for The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill 2016, which was passed without a debate and introduced without prior notice to the Lok Sabha.
In the letter submitted to the President, the MPs had written: “We had gravely apprehended that Parliamentary procedures, seeking the participation of all members in the House in a fruitful legislative debate, would be abandoned for the passage of the Bill. ..the Bill was passed without discussion in the Lok Sabha. Members’ rights to pass amendments were also bypassed.”
Four-day break for Parliament
Lok Sabha will have a four-day holiday starting this weekend, with the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) today deciding to have a holiday on December 12, besides Tuesday which has already been declared a holiday on account of Eid-e-Milad-un Nabi.
Leaders of all major parties, who attended the BAC meeting held in Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s chamber, raised the issue of declaring a holiday on Monday as in some southern states the Prophet’s birthday was being observed on Monday.
After the leaders of Congress, BJP, NCP, TMC and others raised the demand, it was unanimously decided to have a holiday on December 12 as well.
The BAC also decided to allocate four hours for the discussion and voting on Second Supplementary Demands for Grants (General) for 2016-17 and Demands for Excess Grants (General) for 2013-14, which are likely to be taken up tomorrow.
The Committee also decided to allocate three hours for consideration and passage of the Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, once it is passed by the Rajya Sabha.
Earlier in the Lok Sabha also, Opposition members had sought a holiday on December 12.
Sudip Bandopadhyay (TMC) had raised the issue after the House met at noon as he pointed out that December 13 has been officially declared a holiday for Milad-un Nabi, the Prophet’s birthday.
Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also supported this.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the matter can be discussed at the BAC meeting.
He also used the occasion to urge the opposition members, who were protesting in the Well demanding a debate on demonetisation under a rule entailing voting, to start a debate today, pointing out that the Session will end on December 16.