After stalling the Rajya Sabha proceedings for two days on the issue of ongoing Karnataka political crisis, the Congress on Wednesday agreed to participate in the Budget discussion on Thursday. The main Opposition party, earlier, in the day raised a din in the house forcing repeated adjournments. The debate on Budget commenced in the post-lunch session despite the Congress members storming into the well and raising slogans. The Lok Sabha also saw protest by the Congress followed by a walk-out. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied to the Budget debate in the lower house.
The main action was in the Upper House where the Congress repeatedly disrupted the proceedings since the Rajya Sabha met for the day. Incidentally, the party did not allow the house to function on Tuesday too when the debate on budget was to commence. Given the situation, proceedings were adjourned for the day later without any business.
On Wednesday too, same unruly scenes were witnessed for almost the entire day until Leader of the House Thawar Chand Gehlot announced that the Rajya Sabha will begin the debate on Budget on Thursday at 11.00 am and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be present. Congress leader Anand Sharma also said his party is very serious about participating in the debate and appealed to Deputy Chairman Harivansh to adjourn the house. The Chair did so at about 4.15 pm.
Earlier in the day, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu was forced to adjourn the Zero Hour after the Congress raised a din. When the Elders reassembled for the Question Hour, Congress member and Deputy Leader Anand Sharma sought to raise a point but the chairman disallowed him. Seeing the Congress members trooping into the well and continuing to create din, Naidu adjourned the House till 2 PM.
Earlier at the start of proceedings, Naidu said he had not admitted notices by Congress members including Kapil Sibal under rule 267 seeking suspension of rules to take up their issue. Barely had four members made their Zero Hour submission when Congress members were up on their feet again, seemingly bolstered by the presence of their deputy leader. Sharma, who was not present in the House at the start of the proceedings, sought to raise the 267 notice given by his party colleagues but Naidu said the ruling of the chair was final.
In the post-lunch session, Sharma again tried to raise the issue but Deputy Chairman Harivansh did not allow him to do so and asked Congress leader P Chidambaram to begin his speech on the budget. As the agitated Congress members kept on raising slogans in the well and Chidambaram not starting his speech, the chair then asked BJP leader Suresh Prabhu to speak. When he began to speak amidst din, Harivansh adjourned the house till three pm at about 2.05 pm.
Later, Prabhu spoke for about 50 minutes on the budget in the continuous uproar by the Congress. Some protesting members in the well tried to block his view while Prabhu was speaking from the front row. He immediately shifted to the third row to continue his assertion lauding the budget. However, major part of his speech was not audible due to ruckus.
In the Lok Sabha, the Congress staged a walk-out even as Union Minister Prahlad Joshi asserted that Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar was not allowed to enter a Mumbai hotel where Congress MLAs are lodged as they alleged a threat to their life from him and sought police protection.
Speaker Om Birla allowed Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to raise the issue again for the third time even though he reminded him that it has already been taken up in house during the previous days. Prior to this, Congress members had come to the well of the house.
Chowdhury said in Karnataka democracy is being betrayed and a conspiracy is being hatched to overthrow the government. Responding to charges leveled by Chowdhury, Joshi displayed the letter written by the MLAs lodged in a hotel in Mumbai and said it is on their request that the police is guarding the premises.