For the 20th day in a row, there were several disruptions and adjournments in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday.
The second half of the Budget Session, which began on March 5 and concludes on Friday, has been very unproductive mainly because of protests by several Opposition parties with different demands.
The Lok Sabha was first adjourned for an hour soon after it began as Tamil Nadu MPs demanded that the Cauvery Management Board, which will decide how Tamil Nadu and Karnataka share the river water, be set up immediately. “We want justice, we want the Cauvery board,” said the protesting lawmakers.
It reconvened at noon, but MPs from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam protested in the Well of the House and shouted, “Don’t deceive Tamil people”, the Hindustan Times reported.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan brought up the no-confidence motions against the government that were submitted to her but ended up adjourning the House till Thursday as the chaos persisted. Mahajan said she cannot take up the notices or count the members unless there is order in the House.
In the Rajya Sabha, the protests began soon after 12 new members of the House took their oaths of office. The Upper House was adjourned three times – first till 2 pm, then for another 30 minutes shortly after it resumed and then again til 4.45 pm – without any legislative business being taken up. Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu finally adjourned the House for the day without the amendment to the anti-graft bill being passed.
The Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party MPs brought up the Supreme Court judgment on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Here, too, the DMK and AIADMK demanded that the Cauvery Management Board be set up immediately. Members from Andhra Pradesh also shouted slogans demanding special category status for their state.
While adjourning the House at one point, Naidu called the protests a “murder of democracy”.
“We have not transacted any bills, the country wants development, you are testing the patience of the people of the country,” he said, urging the protesting members to return to their seats. “Please understand that the entire country is agitated with what is happening in the House.”
In earlier sessions too, the Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress protested to demand special category category status for Andhra Pradesh, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi protested for more job quotas in Telangana.
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