The Leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad who was upset with longer adjournment said that the voices of opposition are being muzzled inside the parliament.
Almost all the opposition parties including Congress, Trinamool Congress Party, and Aam Adami Party staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha proceedings on Tuesday. The opposition leaders claimed that their voices are not being heard and the ruling party is trying to muzzle their concerns.
On Tuesday, the house opened at around 11 AM in the morning. Soon after, Samajwadi Party MPs entered the well during the zero hour raising the issue of “fake encounters” in UP. On the other hand, TMC MPs wanted to raise the issue of West Bengal governor writing directly to state government officials. Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the house till 2 PM.
When the Rajya Sabha resumed at 2 PM, TMC MP Derek O’Brien tried to voice the issue again. The leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the opposition leaders should at least be given 1 minute to put their issues forward. However, deputy chairman P J Kurian turned down his request and adjourned the house again till 3 PM. Upset by the long adjournment opposition leaders decided to boycott the proceedings of the rest of the day. The decision was supported by Trinamool, SP, NCP, CPM, CPI, DMK and AAP leaders.
“We have seen in the last two days whenever any leader of the Opposition or MP stands up, instead of listening to him; the House is adjourned till 2 pm,” Azad said. The Opposition voice is being muzzled outside, but we do not want this to happen inside the House,” asserted Azad. TMC MP Derek O’Brien called it a “daylight murder of democracy”, while SP’s Naresh Agrawal said, “We are not here just to pass the bills tabled by the government, we are here to represent concerns of the state as well. But this does not mean we have no confidence in the chair.”
Meanwhile, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu said that frequent disruptions impact the image and the credibility of the house and lead to “negative public perception”. Clarifying his decision to adjourn the house, Naidu said, “My intention in doing so is to promote a sense of collective responsibility in minimising forced frequent disruptions. When members and parties realise that they would ultimately be the losers of such disruptions and adjournments, they would talk to each other and enable better functioning of the house.”
The leader of the House Arun Jaitley, on the other hand, accused the opposition of “manufacturing issues when none exist”. He said, “What opposition parties have done in Rajya Sabha is absolutely unprecedented. The Congress and some other parties have tried to manufacture an issue where none existed.”
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