Current rules not enough, need high-level probe, exemplary action against unruly MPs in Rajya Sabha: Govt

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 12

The government and the Opposition were on a war path on Thursday, with top ministers demanding high-level probe and exemplary action against unruly Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha a day after the monsoon session came to a close.

Terming Opposition protests today as attempts to deflect attention from action which would follow their misconduct in the Rajya Sabha, the government said Opposition actions in the House were “so deplorable that these could not be addressed with present rules.”

“Violent acts of the Opposition on August 4, August 9 and August 11 are not ordinary. These are extraordinary acts with deep implications. The act of the MP who climbed the table and threw a rule book at the Chair could have been a murderous assault had someone been sitting in that Chair. Current House rules are not adequate to address such misconduct which breached all limits. We appealed to Rajya Sabha Chairman today to set up a high-level committee like the one set up by former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, study all CCTVs and probe the intentions of the Opposition, their violent approach and arrogance of one family that they alone have the right on the country. All this must come out. The fact is, the Opposition had no intentions to run the House from day one and their actions bore that out,” Minister of Commerce, Food and Textiles and leader of Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal said, noting that RS witnessed competitive Opposition in the House which meant that if an AAP member had climbed up the table, Congress MPs would also have to follow suit in the wake of Punjab Assembly elections.

Rejecting the Opposition charges that outsiders were deployed for Rajya Sabha security yesterday, Goyal said: “Eighteen male and 12 female marshals were deployed to protect the Chair, table and House property in the light of what happened on August 4 when some women MPs damaged RS property while trying to enter the chambers and wounded a female security officer. Only 30 marshals were on duty in the Rajya Sabha yesterday.”

The government released footage of a female marshal being pushed by two Congress MPs — Devi Nehtam and Chhaya Verma in the Rajya Sabha yesterday and asked “what direction does the Opposition wish to give to Parliamentary democracy.

The government also said that the Congress and TMC “had no intention to run the Parliament from day one.”

“Indications that this session would be a washout had been given to us right at the very start on the day of the all-party meeting. The TMC and Congress later told us no matter what we do the session would remain washed out. They also threatened us that if we brought more Bills a more disastrous situation (than what was seen on August 4, 9) would happen,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

The government today sought an apology from the Opposition MPs for their unruly behaviour on August 4 (when some TMC MPs after being suspended damaged house property and injured a female security officer while forcibly entering RS); August 9 (when AAP member Sanjay Singh and Congress’ Partap Bajwa and Ripun Bora climbed the table of the Rajya Sabha with Bajwa throwing the rule book at the chair), August 11 (when some Opposition MPs allegedly assaulted a female marshal).

“Let alone apologise they are brazening it out with a street protest. This is just a deflection to preempt action against them for their misconduct which we deplore,” said Goyal.

Joshi earlier said the Opposition was unable to accept the people’s mandate favouring PM

Narendra Modi as they considered the seat of governance their “birth right.”

The government is seeking a committee on the lines of the one former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee  had

set up to go into the conduct of MPs involved in the cash-for-question scam.