Opposition protests over Bihar SIR rock Rajya Sabha, proceedings adjourned for the day

The Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Friday amid vociferous protests by Opposition members over the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

The House could not function and both the Zero Hour and Question Hour were washed out. The House was earlier adjourned soon after laying of papers within minutes. When the House reassembled at 12 noon, there was no let-up in the protests forcing the Chair to adjourn for the day. Some of the Opposition members even entered the Well and raised slogans against the SIR.

Later, as soon as the House resumed at 2 pm, the Opposition members continued with the sloganeering.

Pleas by the Chair to take up a bill, which seeks to provide seats to the Scheduled Tribes in the Goa Legislative Assembly, fell on deaf ears.     Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal wondered whether the Opposition was against the interest of the Scheduled Tribes and questioned their intent.

As the Opposition protests continued, the House was adjourned for the day.

The House will meet again on Monday.

The Opposition has been demanding a discussion in the House in the SIR issue and the withdrawal of the EC’s exercise which has come ahead of Assembly elections slated to be held later this year.

In the morning session, Deputy Chairman Harivansh said he received 30 adjournment notices under Rule 267 for discussion on SIR, alleged discrimination against Bengali migrant workers in other states, impact of the US decision to impose 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports, and mass layoffs in Indian IT sector, among others.

Harviansh said that since the notices do not conform to the detailed directions imparted by the Chair, the same were declined.

The Opposition was up on their feet protesting the Chair’s decision, and several of them raised slogans and stood on the aisle.

The Chair allowed Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) to speak, who urged the Chair to allow discussion on SIR.

Harivansh said since the matter is sub judice, he cannot allow discussion on it.

“This is a sub judice matter and the rules of this House are very clear. I cannot allow (discussion),” he said, and urged the protesting members to return to their seats and called Ashok Kumar Mittal (AAP) to raise his Zero Hour mention.

However, the protests continued.

The Chair’s repeated efforts to ensure smooth functioning went in vain, and the proceedings were adjourned within 11 minutes.

According to the agenda for Friday, besides the private members’ business, the House was to take up statutory resolution for continuance of President’s rule in Manipur for another six months and The Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, 2025.

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday published the draft electoral rolls for Bihar, following the completion of the month-long SIR exercise ahead of the upcoming assembly polls.

No compiled list was made available, but voters can check their names on the EC’s website.

There were 7.93 crore registered voters in the state before the SIR began in June, according to the EC.

It is yet to be known how many voters are in the just-published draft rolls.

Printouts of the rolls will be made available to representatives of various political parties later in the day, officials said.

The publication of the draft rolls kicked off the process of “claims and objections”, which would continue till September 1. During this period, voters with complaints of wrongful deletion of names can approach the authorities concerned, seeking a remedy.

Assembly elections would be due in the state later this year.

In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with “enumeration forms”, either by booth-level officers (BLO) or booth-level agents (BLA) nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity.

People also had the option of downloading and submitting these enumeration forms online.

The process was over by July 25 and, according to the EC, “7.23 crore voters” submitted their enumeration forms, while 35 lakh were found to have “permanently migrated or gone untraceable”.

Another 22 lakh have been reported to be deceased, while 7 lakh people were registered as voters in more than one electoral roll.

The EC also claimed that enumeration forms were not submitted by 1.2 lakh voters.

The mammoth exercise was carried out by BLOs deputed across 77,895 polling centres, assisted by 1.60 lakh BLAs and other volunteers, under the supervision of 243 EROs (Electors Registration Officers) and 2,976 Assistant EROs.

The opposition parties criticised the exercise, alleging that it was undertaken to “help” the ruling NDA in the upcoming polls. Petitions were also filed against it in the Supreme Court, which said earlier this week that the SIR should result in “en masse inclusion and not en masse exclusion”.