The proceedings of the Parliament completely derailed on Wednesday too with both the Houses adjourned for the day with the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence during the debate on demonetisation and his apology for putting people to hardships, and the lok Sabha also failing to break the impasse for the 15th straight day.
The Government tried to initiate the debate on demonetisation in the lok Sabha under rule 193, not entailing voting, when TRS member AP Jitender Reddy was called to initiate the discussion. But when Reddy started reading out his written speech, Opposition members, particularly those from the TMC, came near his seat and indulged in vociferous slogan-shouting, apparently to drown his voice in the din. large number of Congress and other Opposition parties were also seen raising slogans from the aisles or inside the Well.
As the chaos continued, Karnataka BJP MP Pralhad Joshi, who was in the Chair, adjourned the House for the day, briefly in the post-lunch session. Before this lok Sabha witnessed two adjournments amidst noisy scenes with the Opposition demanding that “hardships” of people be discussed under provisions entailing voting.
Earlier when proceedings started, MPs of Congress, TMC and the left parties entered the Well, raising slogans and demanding voting after a debate on the demonetisation issue.
The Prime Minister was present in the House at that time as questions for the PMO were listed to be taken up during Question Hour. However, he left the House shortly thereafter.
Rejecting the Opposition demand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said voting had already taken place and it has gone in favour of the Prime Minister.
When Kumar said Modi has got the highest votes in the ‘Time’ magazine opinion poll and the voting has already taken place, leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge objected to it.
In the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition demanded an explanation from the Government over deaths due to hardships caused post demonetisation. The House witnessed two adjournments in the pre-lunch session and the proceedings were adjourned for the day shortly after lunch as an adamant Opposition demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence during the debate and apology from him for putting the common people to hardships after demonetisation.
Earlier some Opposition members including Sitaram Yechury(CPM), Naresh Agrawal(SP) and Anand Sharma (Congress) asserted that there were precedents in the House when during debates on 2G Spectrum and coal scams, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat through the entire debate.
Making its intentions clear as soon as the Rajya Sabha met for the day that the Opposition will not allow the House to run smoothly, leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said at least 84 people had died in various parts of the country after demonetisation decision a month back. Claiming that the decision was ill-planned and badly implemented, he said the House has to hold somebody responsible for these deaths.
Azad also questioned the objective of demonetisation as major part of the currency had come back to the banks after demonetisation as mentioned by the Revenue Secretary and remarked “where is the black money.” Moreover, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) in the last ten days had not given the figures of money so far deposited in the banks, the Congress leader said and sought daily update from the RBI. He also said the Government was trying to divide the rich and poor.
BJP members raised slogans leading to counter-sloganeering by the Opposition. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien tried to restore order and asked the Opposition to start discussion but it did not relent forcing the first adjournment till 12.00 pm at 11.20 am. The Question Hour witnessed same scenes and Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the house till 2.00 pm. The House was finally adjourned for the day after 15 minutes or so after the lunch break due to ruckus.