The first day of the Parliament Session on Monday started along the expected stormy line in both the Houses with the Government and the Opposition taking on each other over the issues of imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh as also on the controversial case of Ishrat Jahan, the alleged leT terror operative.
Waiting to make an all-out attack on the Government over imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress created bedlam in Parliament from the word go and accused the Modi dispensation of toppling democratically-elected Governments of Opposition parties and “killing Constitution”. Congress members rushed to the Well of both Houses raising slogans.
Ishrat Jahan (alleged terror operative killed in a controversial encounter in 2004) was another flash point between the BJP and the Congress as the former raked up the issue in the lok Sabha accusing a former Home Minister in the UPA of playing with national security by seeking to dub “a terrorist as a martyr.”
Amid frayed tempers, the lok Sabha continued its proceedings. But the Rajya Sabha witnessed repeat adjournments in pre and post-lunch session before it was adjourned for the day shortly after it reconvened at 3 pm.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in his brief intervention in the lok Sabha rejected the Opposition charge of dismantling Opposition party Governments and maintained that the two States had turned politically volatile not on account of “my party’ but due to the “crisis” within “these parties”. The Home Minister did not name the Congress. He said there will be a discussion in the lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha where all can participate and air their views.
Minutes after the first day’s business proceedings commenced, Congress members in the lower House stormed the Well with party president Sonia Gandhi joining them in raising slogans against the Government. leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge and his party colleagues staged a dharna in the Well as their notice for adjournment motion on the issue was rejected by the Chair. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan allowed Kharge to raise the issue only after the Question Hour.
“It is a murder of democracy,” Kharge said as the lower House assembled for the day, telling the Speaker that he has given a notice for an adjournment motion on the issue. Members of JD(U) and AAP were also in the Well along with the Congress.
Amid a noisy protest by the treasury benches, Kharge later said during Zero Hour that the Union Government was purchasing MlAs, pressurising MlAs to install BJP Government “by killing Constitution”. The Speaker reminded Kharge that the matter is before the Supreme Court and hence he should not say anything further. To which, Kharge said he is referring to the action of the Central Government and not the ruling of Uttarakhand High Court which had revoked the President’s Rule.
In the Rajya Sabha, leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the issue accusing the Central Government of “deliberately provoking” the Opposition and “inducing” disruption so that the House does not run. Azad said President’s Rule has been imposed in the past also, but never in such a “crude” way.
As Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi objected to the raising of the Uttrakhand issue saying the matter was sub-judice, Azad said the Centre “which disrespects the court, cannot be trusted”.
leader of the House Arun Jaitley asked Congress members to debate the issue when the proclamation comes up for discussion. “But today, you cannot by an alternative motion anticipate a discussion which is to take place when the proclamation comes up. You cannot discuss it at the pre-proclamation stage,” he said.
Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) countered Naqvi saying Jaitley had said in the last session that discussion on issues, even if sub-judice, cannot be prevented in the House. “Apply your own precedents,” he said.
Raising the Ishrat Jahan issue during Zero Hour in lok Sabha, Kirit Somaiya (BJP) sought to know whether an official committee which went into the disappearance of four documents in the Ishrat Jahan issue has submitted its report. Kharge sought to utilise the issue to have a dig at the Government wondering how the issue could be allowed to be raised as the matter, like Uttarakhand President’s Rule, is sub-judice.
On his part, P Chidambaram (Home Minister during the UPA rule) hit back in a series of tweets saying the affidavit controversy is only to “divert attention” from the real issue, which is whether it was a “fake” encounter or not. The BJP will raise the issue of his tweets in the House on Tuesday.
The senior Congress leader said, “Coming to the affidavits, the Home Minister does not sign affidavits. It is signed by an Under Secretary.” The BJP has recently alleged that Chidambaram was acting on the directions of Sonia when he filed a second affidavit in the case in an attempt to create roadblocks in the way of Narendra Modi’s becoming Prime Minister.