The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed repeated adjournments over a clutch of issues, including Delhi riots, ban on some media channels in Kerala and the treasury and the Opposition differing on taking up two ordinances which are lapsing on Thursday. All the parties finally agreed to discuss the ordinances pertaining to mines and minerals and insolvency code on Thursday morning followed by a discussion on the Delhi riots.
The first adjournment till 2.00 pm came minutes after the House met for the day at 11.00 am when the Opposition parties raised the issue of communal violence in Delhi and the Government ban on two Malayalam news channels for their coverage of the riots.
While Left parties raised the issue of the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry imposing a 48-hour telecast ban on Asianet News and Media One TV, the Trinamool Congress(TMC) raised the issue of recent communal violence in the national capital. Some Congress members raised the political happenings in Madhya Pradesh. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the proceedings till after lunch at 11.05 am.
The afternoon session commenced with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar making a suo moto statement on the Government’s efforts to bring back stranded Indians from Italy and Iran. Several Elders from several parties expressed concern over the issue. However, when Deputy Chairman Harivansh moved to the other business of taking up the two ordnances namely the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 and the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, several Opposition MPs including Derek O’Brien objected.
With the treasury and the Opposition sticking to their guns with the former insisting on discussing the two ordinances on Wednesday and the latter on Thursday,
the chair adjourned the
proceedings.
With no agreement in sight for some time, the house was adjourned repeatedly till at 3:40 pm Deputy Chairman Harivansh called Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi to give his statement.
Joshi told the House as agreed in the meeting in the Deputy Chairman’s Chamber, the two ordinances (listed in supplementary agenda) would be discussed on Thursday at 11 am. Thereafter, there would be a discussion on Delhi violence in the House.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad then said all parties have agreed that they will finish the discussion on two ordinances in the morning and discuss the Delhi violence in the afternoon.
He then requested the chair to adjourn the House for the day and Harivansh did so saying it was the sense of the house.