Even as the fracas continued in the Rajya Sabha for the third consecutive day over the Opposition demand for a reply from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a debate on communal incidents, the government on Wednesday said that it will “not yield under pressure.”
With this, the fate of the Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2008 that the government wants to introduce and the Opposition wants to stall, hangs in the balance.
Cong. MP suspended
Amid uproar and repeated adjournments, Chairman Hamid Ansari “named” and suspended Congress member Hanumantha Rao for creating a ruckus and making unparliamentary, personal remarks against the Prime Minister.
“We have done nothing wrong and we have nothing to fear,” Mr. Modi is reported to have said in a meeting with senior Ministers before the commencement of Parliament. He will be in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday as it is his questions day, but is unlikely to intervene on the conversions issue.
“After the Prime Minister spoke in the House following Minister of State Niranjan Jyoti’s apology, the Opposition has shifted the goalpost and are trying to spread disinformation against the BJP,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said at a press conference. Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi if the Congress MPs had her backing for their behaviour in the House.
The government had agreed to a short discussion on incidents of communal violence on Wednesday but attempts by Home Minister Rajnath Singh to make a statement were drowned in the din raised by Opposition members. Naresh Agarwal raised a point of order saying that the Prime Minister should speak in the House and not in the BJP Parliamentary meeting when Parliament was in session, but was overruled by the Chair.
Noisy scenes continued when the House resumed after lunch. As soon as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made a statement on the restaurant attack in Australia, the pandemonium continued. BJP MPs also got into an altercation with the Opposition on the issue of reinstating Mr. Rao who was suspended for a day.
Anti-hijacking Bill
Amid the din, a Bill seeking stringent punishment including death penalty for hijackers — the Anti-Hijacking (Amendment) Bill 2014 — was introduced by Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
The new Bill, amending the anti-hijack law, states that hijacking of an aircraft will be punishable with life imprisonment and fine. It says that a person who attempts or abets hijacking of an aircraft will be considered a hijacker, and punished accordingly.
