‘Opp must apologise to nation for their action in Upper House’
The unsavoury incidents in the Upper House which led to a near washout of the Monsoon Session of Parliament again brought the Government and the Opposition face-to-face on Thursday with both the sides hurling accusations against each other for damaging country’s democratic traditions.
The Government fielded nine senior Ministers at a Press conference and charged the Opposition with “pre-planned agenda “of disruption” and having “no interest in discussion” and asked the Opposition to “apologise to the nation”. It demanded strict action against the obstructive behaviour of the Opposition.
“People wait for their issues to be raised in Parliament. But Opposition parties do not care about people, they don’t care about taxpayers’ money. Anarchy from streets to Parliament was Opposition’s only agenda during the Monsoon Session. What happened was condemnable. Instead of shedding crocodile tears, they must apologise to the nation,” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur while addressing the joint Press conference.
The conference was attended by Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Prahlad Joshi, Bhupendra Yadav, Anurag Singh Thakur, Arjun Ram Meghwal and V Muraleedharan.
“Some Opposition members desecrated the sanctity of the House by climbing the sanctum sanctorum (garbhagriha), namely the table located at Well of the House, and threw the Rule Book at the Chair. The member of Parliament who stood on the table in Parliament was not only standing on the table but was trampling upon Parliamentary ethics. He was not only throwing a book at the Chair but was also throwing Parliamentary conduct out of the House,” said the Ministers.
Saying that “anti-democratic and violent behaviour” of the Opposition during Parliament Session scripts a dark chapter in the history of Indian democracy, the Government said misbehaviour by the Opposition members is “a shameful disgrace in Parliamentary history of India” and “they must apologise to the nation”.
The Ministers said the Opposition had publicly stated that the Session should be washed out. “Their intention was to not let the House conduct business,” they said.
In fact, the Government had offered discussions on several occasions. However, appeals for discussions fell on deaf ears and they even took papers from the hands of the Minister and tore them. Even the Prime Minister was not allowed to introduce the newly sworn-in council of Ministers”, they said.
Referring to the bedlam on the last day of the Monsoon Session, the Ministers said “such behaviour is unprecedented in our House and the Opposition has done grievous harm to the reputation of the House. The Opposition’s behaviour was an assault on the dignity of the institution and could have grievously injured the Secretary General.
“Misbehaviour by the Opposition members is a shameful disgrace in Parliamentary History of India. It is rather unfortunate that the Opposition MPs are not even apologetic about their actions. Rather they are considering these shameful actions as acts of valour”, they said.
Leader of the Upper House Goyal alleged that the Opposition has misbehaved throughout the Session only because they do not want issues of public welfare to be discussed.
“It is demanded that strict action should be taken on the shameful and obstructive behaviour of the Opposition. They wanted to create Opposition unity to foster national disunity. They owe answers to the nation”, he said.
The Government Ministers said the Opposition questions over bills being passed in the din. However, it is their refusal to allow Parliamentary debate that has left no choice.
“From merely shouting, they have shifted to violence and manhandling staff to disrupt Parliamentary process. Also, where was this concern about passage without discussion when numerous bills were passed in din during the UPA rule. Between 2006 and 2014, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA 1 & 2) Government passed a total of 18 Bills in a hasty manner”, said Goyal.
The Government claimed despite highest disruption since 2014, the number of Bills passed per day during this session in Rajya Sabha was the 2nd highest since 2014 ( 1.1 Bills per day passed).