Uttarakhand rocks Rajya Sabha for second day

April 27, 2016 02:35 am | Updated 02:35 am IST - NEW DELHI:

The Rajya Sabha adjourned early for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, after Congress MPs protested against the imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand.

The government, meanwhile, squarely blamed the “unconstitutional” behaviour of Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal for the crisis.

Leader of the House, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, said the matter would be discussed when the proclamation, which has to be cleared by both Houses of Parliament, came up for discussion. He said the “real breakdown of constitutional machinery” happened when the presiding officer (Speaker) “ignored” the vote of 35 out of the 67 members against the appropriation bill to declare it passed.

Protests by the Congress MPs started soon after the newly nominated members, boxer Mary Kom, BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy, economist Narendra Jadhav and journalist Swapan Dasgupta, took the oath. The ruckus led to repeated adjournments and the House was finally adjourned for the day minutes after 3 pm.

After Mr. Jaitley said that no discussion could take place, Congress members raised anti-government slogans forcing the House to adjourn till noon.

Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Pramod Tiwari and Naresh Agrawal of the SP had given notices under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to take up discussion on the use of Article 356 in Uttarakhand. The demand was supported by BSP leader Mayawati.

Mr. Jaitley, while referring to the developments in the Uttarakhand Assembly, contended that never in the history of Independent India had a presiding officer of a State Assembly converted majority into minority and vice versa.

Congress leader Anand Sharma countered him, saying the BJP “cannot hide under the rules to cover what they have done in Uttarakhand.” Rule 267 and Rule 176 for short duration discussion do not set any condition for initiating a debate on any issue. There had been several precedents when matters sub-judice had been debated in the House.

Janata Dal (U) leader K.C. Tyagi sought a detailed discussion on the anti-defection law and suggested that no defector should be made a Minister for five years.

Repeated attempts by deputy chairman P.J. Kurien to get the House to function failed and all business was adjourned for the day after the Rajya Sabha reconvened at 3 pm.

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