Parliament could not function once again on Monday amid noisy protests by Opposition members who raised slogans and showed placards on the Pegasus snooping row and farmers’ issue.
The Rajya Sabha witnessed several adjournments and carried no business where as the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after passage of two bills without discussion. The pre-lunch session in the Rajya Sabha saw two adjournments and it was the same in the afternoon session also.
The Upper House assembled at 2 pm and adjourned within minutes to reassemble at 3 pm which too got adjourned to meet again at 4 pm after which a Bill on Indecent Representation of Women by Union Minister Smriti Irani was taken and discussed amid the din. The agitated Opposition was in no mood to relent and the Upper House was finally adjourned for the day within 15 minutes of function.
The protesting members did not pay heed to repeated appeals made by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and some members stormed in the Well of the House displaying placards and yet others raised slogans forcing two adjournments in the post-lunch session.
The unruly scenes saw Naidu saying it was a “helpless” situation and members were unable to flag issues of public concern. When Naidu called for the members to raise their issues in the Zero Hour, the Opposition created a ruckus. The Chairman lamented that several important issues could not be raised.
He expressed concern over about 90 members of the House being denied opportunities to raise issues due to persistent disruption of proceedings of the House. A total of 69 Zero Hour Mentions including 12 admitted for Monday and 23 Special Mentions by as many members could not be raised in the House during the last week.
Naidu also expressed concern over the members of the House denied opportunity to seek clarifications from the Minister of Information Technology regarding “Compromise on phone data of some persons as reported by media” (alleged Pegasus spyware issue).
The Opposition made its intentions clear soon after the proceedings commenced for the day with members paying respect to the martyrs of the Kargil war on the occasion of 22nd anniversary and lauding Mirabai Chanu’s feat of bagging the silver medal in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
After complete wash out of the pre-lunch proceedings, Lok Sabha took up the Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and the National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2021, separately. Discussion on the two bills could not take place as Opposition members continued to stage protests demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping allegations and the farmers’ demand of repealing the three new agri laws.
Rama Devi, who was chairing the proceedings, repeatedly urged protesting members to return to their seats and participate in the discussions. However, with protesting MPs not relenting, she went ahead with the consideration and passage of the two bills.
Earlier in the day, the House saw repeated adjournments and when it met at 2 p.m. and ran for a few minutes, papers were laid on the table and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
As soon as the House met in the morning, Speaker Om Birla paid tributes to personnel of the armed forces for their valour and sacrifice during the 1999 Kargil War. He also congratulated Mirabai Chanu for winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Soon thereafter, Opposition members trooped into the Well raising slogans, disrupting the proceedings. While the Pegasus snooping row remained the dominant issue with the Opposition members, they also raised slogans and displayed placards in support of agitating farmers.