Absence of Minister of Environment and Forest Anil Dave during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Monday drew the ire of Chairman Hamid Ansari who remarked he had not seen such "an extraordinary situation in "the last 10 years" and termed it was "most unusual." Several Congress MPs also said the Government was taking the Rajya Sabha for granted.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was present to field the questions on behalf of Dave, and his colleague Uma Bharti, apologised. Incidentally, this is the second time in this session that Ministers were not present to answer questions. Ansari had last time also expressed his unhappiness over it.
The latest situation arose when Congress member Mahendra Singh Mahra raised the listed question on air and noise pollution in Delhi and NCR. His party colleague Jairam Ramesh objected to the Minister's absence and said "it has happened for the second time."
Ansari said it is the responsibility of the concerned Minister to be present in the House when a question relating to his or her Ministry is taken up. "This is an extraordinary situation and I am sure the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs will look into this and respond," he said.
Among other issues raised in the house, ruling NDA ally Akali Dal demanded that the External Affairs Ministry withdraw its statement rejecting a motion adopted by the legislative Assembly of Ontario in Canada last week terming the 1984 riots "genocide."
Raising the issue, Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral said, "There was a state-condoned massacre of innocent Sikhs." Congress member Anand Sharma objected to the statement and demanded that it should be expunged. In the lok Sabha, Akali Dal member Prem Singh Chandumajra raised the issue and criticised the External Affairs Ministry for rejecting the motion.
Narendra Budania (Congress) expressed concern over an Indian jawan, who had raised the issue of quality of food served to the forces, being shown as dead in social media in Pakistan and other foreign countries and said "this is a serious issue. Our country is being defamed."
Tapan Kumar Sen (CPM)claimed the Government was trying to privatise public sector steel plants and drew the attention of the House to strike call by the employees of these factories on Tuesday as a mark of protest.