Crucial Bills passed without 146 suspended MPs
Parliament was adjourned sine die on Thursday, a day before its scheduled time, after the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha passed the pending crucial Bills in the complete absence of Opposition benches from both Houses, making it unprecedented. While the Lok Sabha was adjourned after the passage of important Bills, including the appointment of election commissioners and the Press registration process, the Rajya Sabha passed important legislations on three criminal Bills and the Telecom Bill.
The last time such a large number of MPs were suspended was under the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on March 15, 1989, by then Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar. A total of 63 MPs from the Opposition benches were suspended for the remainder of the week, which was three days during the Budget session. The suspended MPs included VP Singh, Somnath Chatterjee, VC Shukla, Indrajit Gupta, S Jaipal Reddy during the 8th Lok Sabha, sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the leaders of some political parties in a customary meeting on Thursday after Parliament’s winter session, during which the government’s legislative agenda was passed, was adjourned sine die. Official sources said Modi thanked everyone. The Prime Minister and the leaders of different political parties generally visit the Speaker after the end of every Parliament session. Opposition leaders, most of whom were suspended from the two Houses for their continuous protests over an incident of security breach in Parliament, kept away from the meeting. Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) Bhartruhari Mahtab and Shiv Sena’s Rahul Shewale were among the leaders present at the meeting, besides Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Pralhad Joshi, among others.
Before the Lok Sabha adjourned sine die, three more MPs from the Opposition were suspended for the “remainder” of the Winter Session, taking the total number of suspended MPs in the Lower House to 100 for unruly behaviour and misconduct. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion for the suspension of DK Suresh, Deepak Baij, and Nakul Nath on Thursday.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had warned the three MPs against protesting in the House. With this, the total number of MPs suspended for unruly behaviour from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha stood at an unprecedented 146 since December 14.
In both the Houses, the Opposition had been demanding a statement in the House from Home Minister Amit Shah for the security breach on December 13.
The Opposition leaders under the INDIA bloc banner will protest against suspension of INDIA parties MPs at Jantar Mantar on Friday.
The Lok Sabha passed three key Bills to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act on Wednesday, followed by the same in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. During his reply in the Upper House after the Bill was moved by him, Home Minister Amit Shah said over 70,000 people were killed due to terrorism on account of Congress government’s wrong policies.
“We had been deliberating and discussing on this since August 2019. I feel joyous to be presenting this today. Not just the names of laws have been changed, but major changes have been made in their objectives. Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and Evidence Act were formulated to safeguard the British rule,” the Home Minister said.
The Lower House also cleared a bill to establish a mechanism for the appointment of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners. With the passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, the Parliament approved the Bill that seeks to allow the government to temporarily take control of telecom services in the interest of national security and also provide a non-auction route for the allocation of satellite spectrum. The Telecommunications Bill, 2023, was approved by the Rajya Sabha through a voice vote. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday after a short debate in the absence of Opposition MPs.
TMC’s Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha after the House adopted a resolution accepting the recommendation of the House ethics committee, which found her guilty of asking questions in Parliament in return for cash and gifts. The Winter session began on December 4 and was scheduled to conclude on December 22.
On the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, two men jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery and released yellow smoke from canisters they were carrying. They were overpowered by MPs. The action to suspend opposition MPs drew sharp criticism from the Congress and other parties, which accused the BJP government of trying to bulldoze through key legislations in an “opposition-less” Parliament.
Amid the string of suspensions, a political row broke out after Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee mimicked Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar during the opposition’s protest on the stairs of Parliament against the MPs’ suspension, drawing strong condemnation from the ruling BJP. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was seen making a video of the performance by Banerjee, who appeared to mimic the way Dhankhar walked by leaning forward and made reference to having a spine. President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed dismay at the incident.
The Lok Sabha recorded 74 percent productivity in this winter session, Birla noted in his valedictory remarks. In his concluding remarks in the House, the speaker said the Lok Sabha held 14 sittings and worked for 61 hours and 50 minutes. Lok Sabha passed 18 bills, including Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Sanhita, to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal procedure (CrPC), and Indian Evidence Act, respectively. A total of 17 Bills, including important path-breaking bills related to Jammu & Kashmir, Appointment of Election Commissioners, the Post Office Bill, the Telecommunications Bill, and the three Bills namely Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were passed during this session in the Rajya Sabha.
In his Valedictory remarks, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said the upper house was able to transact business for 65 hours during the 14 sittings and addressed over 2300 Questions from treasury and the opposition benches. “I am pained to state that nearly 22 hours were lost due to avoidable disruptions adversely impacting our overall productivity that finally stood at 79 percent. Weaponizing disruptions and disturbance as a political strategy doesn’t resonate with our constitutional obligation of keeping the interest of people at large above any other political considerations,” Dhankar said.
