A day after 14 Opposition members were suspended for disrupting proceedings, both the Houses were adjourned till Monday as protests rocked Parliament over the issue of security breach. While the Lok Sabha barely functioned for a couple of minutes on Friday, the Rajya Sabha too did not take up any business other than customary laying of papers. Both the Houses did not take up the question hour, zero hour and the private members’ businesses on Friday over the issue of security breach in the Lok Sabha. The Opposition members, who had moved notices to take up the matter as adjournment motions, continued their protests as Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla rejected the notices.
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When the Lok Sabha met at 11 a.m., the proceedings were chaired by Rajender Agarwal instead of Mr. Om Birla. Almost immediately, Opposition members trooped into the well of the House, carrying placards and raising slogans against the government to demand a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah over the security breach.
The carrying of placards was in solidarity with their colleagues who were suspended for carrying the same. The Chair adjourned the House till 2 p.m. in less than a minute and then it was adjourned for the day soon after it met in the post-lunch session.
Sonia joins protests
In between adjournments, senior Opposition leaders, including Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi joined the silent protests by the suspended Opposition members. The suspended MPs sat in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Parliament premises protesting the action against them and demanding a statement from Mr. Shah.
The Rajya Sabha too witnessed similar incidents. Mr. Dhankhar adjourned the House till 2 p.m. in the morning after reading out his decision to reject the 23 adjournment notices of Opposition members under Rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha procedures for suspension of the scheduled businesses of the day to discuss the “serious situation arising out of breach of security” in Parliament on December 13.
Aam Aadmi Party member Raghav Chadha, who was trying to raise a point of order, was warned by the Chairman. Mr. Dhankhar objected to the gesture of Mr. Chadha to seek the point of order. “Mr. Chadha, you don’t have to do like this [gesture] to raise a point of order... use your tongue... don’t do it,” he said, adding that another day Mr. Chadha might start dancing to invite the attention of the Chair. Mr. Dhankhar also invited Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and other floor leaders to meet him in his chamber, but apparently the meeting did not solve the impasse and the House adjourned again at 2 p.m.
