Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge accused treasury benches of bull-dozing the opposition and said it is not right to take up or pass any bill when the House is not in order.
The National Herald issue cast its shadow over Lok Sabha also with Congress members continuously creating uproar in the midst of which the House conducted some business, including passage of a bill and discussion on the drought situation.Even as the Congress members raised slogans in the Well and were supported by Trinamool Congress, the House took up the Question Hour, the Zero Hour and the legislative business like discussion and passage of The Indian Trusts (Amendment) Bill, 2015. Amid the din, the House also took up the resumed discussion on the drought and farmers’ suicide in which a number of members from parties like Samajwadi Party, BJD, RJD, TRS, AIADMK, YSRCP besides BJP and its allies SAD, Shiv Sena and TDP participated.<!– Dna_Article_Middle_300x250_BTF –>Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge accused treasury benches of bull-dozing the opposition and said it is not right to take up or pass any bill when the House is not in order.”Government is suppressing, depressing and disregarding the opposition. Such attitude is wrong. We want your (Chair) protection. The Bill should not be passed. Let them (Government) first take action against V K Singh, Rajasthan Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan,” Kharge said.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, however, said Parliament cannot go on like this as the people of the country wanted legislation. Attacking Congress, he said, “30 people are not allowing the House to run. They want the democracy to fail. They are obstructing progress. They are exposed. They are frustrated.” He said Congress had not been able to come to terms with its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and BJP’s massive win under Modi.Referring to National Herald case, he said the case was filed when the UPA was in power. Earlier, Kharge also attacked Union Minister V K Singh, who was present in the House, over his “dog” remark.As Singh kept smiling, Kharge intensified his attack and demanded that the minister be immediately sacked for his “dog” remark after the killing of two Dalit children in Haryana.Naidu defended his colleague, saying a court had also rejected the charge against him and insisted that the government was “proud” of all its ministers for doing an “excellent” job. Saugata Roy (TMC) used his time in Zero Hour to support Congress and target the government, inviting a sharp rebuke from Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. “I fully support the contention of Congress that the government is behaving in a vincdictive way. The Prime Minister must respond,” he said. After the Speaker disallowed him from speaking, TMC members staged a walkout. As Congress members continued to raise slogans from the Well even after Kharge was allowed to speak, the Speaker said, “I have given full time to your leader to have his say. There is no issue before the House. They must go to their seats. I am giving you a warning.” At another point, she wondered if the Congress members were trying to “scare” the Chair.Both Sonia and Rahul were present in the House and the Congress chief was seen giving some suggestions to Kharge when he was speaking. The Prime Minister was present in the House for most of the Question Hour when Congress members stormed the Well but left before the Zero Hour at 12 pm.Citing corruption cases against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, Kharge accused the government of indulging in “vendetta politics” and claiming that it applied one set of laws against its leaders and another for those from BJP. He, however, made no reference to the National Herald case in which Delhi High Court yesterday refused to give Sonia and Rahul Gandhi any relief from appearance before a local court.”There are two laws in this country — one for the opposition and another for the government. When we raised the issue of corruption involving Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh chief ministers, no action was taken.”But you raided the premises of our Gujarat leader Shankarsinh Vaghela. When a wedding was taking place in the house of Virbharda Singh, CBI raided his house. Nothing came out of this and then ED lodged a case against him. False CBI cases are being registered in Haryana but no action taken against BJP chief ministers involved in scams,” he said. He also raised the reported meeting of a Union Minister with a Muzaffarnagar riot accused in jail and his assurance of support to them.”You are adopting the politics of revenge, repression and tyranny against opposition leaders. This is happening not only with us but others like the TMC too. If people do not agree with you, then you try to harass them,” Kharge said amid support from TMC members. Seeking to dispel the impression that Congress was upset over the National Herald case, he said “we are not against judiciary. We are protesting against your policies of repression.”Rebutting strongly, Naidu raked up the arrest of BJP president Amit Shah and also enquiries against Modi during the UPA tenure and accused Congress of trying to see that the government fails.”A judicial order has come,” he said, referring to the National Herald case. “You are giving a warning to judiciary through Parliament. This is not in national interest.”The discussion on the drought situation, initiated byCongress member Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday, resumed today in the House amid uproar by Congress members leading to repeated adjournments. While Congress members did not participate in the discussion, the House saw a clash between the opposition leader Kharge and ruling party members over the issue of who has done more for the farmers.Kharge said the previous Congress-led government had given a waiver of Rs 72,000 crore to farmers and questioned what the present government had done. “We care for the farmers more than you. What have you done for farmers? And now they (the government) are becoming champions of farmers. If we are bad, then the government is worse,” he said. Responding to this, BJP member Virender Singh attacked Congress, particularly Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, saying they know nothing about agriculture and cannot even make distinction between bajra, jowar and wheat.He also attacked Rahul Gandhi for his “suit boot ki sarkar” remark, saying the Congress was not able to reconcile to the fact that a person from humble background like Narendra Modi can become the Prime Minister as the party believes the post is only for the Nehru-Gandhi family. “They (Rahul and Scindia) have known farmers through books and I have learnt about farmers by toiling in field. I have grown so much of foodgrains, which the seven generations of the Scindia’s must have not grown,” the MP from Badoi said.Targeting Scindia, he said he still is called as “maharaj” even though the world has changed. Participating in the discussion despite lot of noise created by Congress, Samajwadi Party member Tej Pratap Singh said Uttar Pradesh was one of the worst affected state. “Farmers are the ones who are suffering the most because of climate change. In the past there have been several discussions over the issue and suggestions have come from both the Opposition and the government. But the suggestions are not being implemented.”RJD member Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav, who had to halt his speech briefly because of the ruckus, demanded special status for Bihar and a central package in dealing with drought like situation in the state.Others who participated in the discussion and urged the central government to allocate more funds to help the farmers included Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav (Shiv Sena), K Ashok Kumar (AIADMK), Kristappa Nimmala (TDP), B B Patil (TRS) and Renuka Butta (YSRCP).In the midst of the debate, the protest by Congress intensified leading to brief adjournments. On resumption, Naidu said the decision to have a discussion on the issue of farmers was asked by the Congress and members from UP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Telangana wanted to raise the issue of it. At this, BJP members started shouting “Shame Shame”.”It is shame for MPs. If you have to protest over any issue, do it, but allow the debate to go on. This is unbecoming of members. I am surprised that how can a senior member like (Mallikarjun) Kharge allow this,” the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said, adding “the entire country is watching”. Prem Singh Chandumajra (SAD) said if the Congress members have any issue, they should approach the Court. He went on to take a dig at Congress, saying he would even request the government to provide a lawyer to it to help them represent their case.”They should not disturb the people’s court”, he said, adding the members should be allowed to express their views and discuss the important issues concerning farmers. Recalling the way the Congress government had declared Emergency in June 1975 after a court case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he said had the Congress been in power they would have imposed Emergency after the recent court ruling.He said this in apparent reference to the court summons to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.Chandumajara demanded increase in the minimum support price (MSP) and fresh loan waiver scheme to provide relief to the distressed farmers. He suggested that the government should take tough stand at the upcoming ministerial meeting of the WTO at Nairobi to protect the interest of Indian farmers.BJP member B S Yeddyurappa said the whole country was watching how the Congress was disturbing the House when it was discussing important issues concerning agriculture and farmers’ suicide.He wanted the centre to instruct Karnataka government to effectively utilise the assistance for the welfare of farmers who were in distress because of worst drought being witnessed by the state in the last 40 years.The former Karnataka Chief Minister accused the state government of indulging in blame game instead of doing something to help the farmers.