Denied discussion on duplicate voter IDs, Opposition stages walkout

The entire Opposition walked out from the Rajya Sabha during zero hour on Monday to protest against the Chair’s refusal to adjourn the listed business of the House under Rule 267 to take up the issue of the Election Commission’s alleged lapses in issuing multiple duplicate voter ID cards for discussion.

As many as 10 MPs gave notices under rule 267. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Mausam B Noor and Sushmita Dev of the TMC and Pramod Tiwari of the Congress demanded a discussion over the alleged lapse by the Election Commission in issuance of multiple duplicate Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card (E-EPIC) across states.

P Wilson of the DMK and V Sivadasan of the CPM raised concerns regarding the upcoming delimitation exercise in southern states. BJP’s Samik Bhattacharya wanted to discuss increased instances of atrocities against SCs, STs and OBCs in West Bengal.

CPI’s P Santhosh Kumar sought to raise the issue of the impact of a deal by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio with Elon Musk’s Starlink for providing satellite broadband Internet in India. Sanjay Singh of the AAP demanded a discussion on the deteriorating law and order situation in Delhi, Haris Beeran of the Indian Union Muslim League wanted one on the issue of increased instances of drug addiction among youth in Kerala.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who started reading out notices given by the MPs, left the chamber abruptly without giving his ruling. Harivans, Deputy Chairman, who replaced Dhankhar as the presiding officer, said the notices could not be admitted as these did not conform to the guidelines laid down by the Chairman.

Members of the TMC and the Congress, including LoP Mallikarjun Kharge, rose up in protest and tried to argue with Harivans to persuade him to allow discussion on duplicate E-EPIC.

As Harivans remained adamant on not allowing discussion on duplicate EPIC, Opposition members walked out of the House in protest. The Opposition members later met Dhankhar in his chamber and urged him to allow Kharge to speak when he would try to intervene during the proceedings of the House.

Earlier, Leader of the House JP Nadda and Kharge welcomed Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar back to the House after being in hospital briefly.

Dhankhar said leaders cutting across the political spectrum, including Congress MP Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, expressed concern and enquired about him from his family members.