Comments
The Telangana issue created extraordinary fissures in Parliament on Thursday, with both Houses again failing to conduct any legislative business.
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari was driven to despair by aggressive members from Andhra Pradesh, who trooped into the well as soon as the House assembled. Ansari was not allowed even to express anguish over the death of North-Eastern student Nido Taniam in Delhi after a brutal attack. “I request all speakers to adhere … Can we not respect even the dead?” he pleaded.
Within three minutes, the Chairman adjourned the House. It reconvened at noon and had to be adjourned within five minutes. A last attempt to conduct business was made at 2 p.m. That endeavour lasted two minutes and the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House for the entire day.
The situation was identical in the Lok Sabha, where Speaker Meira Kumar struggled and eventually failed to restore order.
The Lower House deferred the three Bills listed for discussion and passage: Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to amend the Citizenship Act passed by the Rajya Sabha; Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill to amend the Hindu Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act; and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill.
The Congress suffered the ignominy of having one of its own MPs — Sabbam Hari, from Andhra Pradesh — giving notice for a no-confidence motion against the Centre over the Telangana issue. He was joined by two others, M. Raja Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress and Modugula Venugopala Reddy of the TDP.
Telangana was not the only reason for the chaos. Members from Tamil Nadu protested the harassment of Tamil fishermen by Sri Lanka. Punjab MPs raised slogans over the Congress’s ‘abetment’ of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Other issues ranged from the Pathribal fake encounter case to the safety of North-Eastern students in Delhi, after Taniam’s death last week.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the events as “hiccups”. “I hope all sections of the House will have the wisdom to set aside prejudices and create an atmosphere conducive to harmonious working of the House,” the PM observed.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.