Monsoon Session of Parliament: Rajya Sabha adjourned five times; Lok Sabha debates GST in J&K, Kerala violence on Day 13

The Rajya Sabha faced a stormy session on Wednesday with it being adjourned five times after Opposition members created a ruckus inside the Upper House over I-T raids in MLAs’ houses in Bengaluru. The proceedings in the Lok Sabha, on the contrary, were relatively peaceful as MPs debated GST in Jammu and Kashmir and banking regulation amendment bill.

Since the beginning of the session, there was ruckus in the Rajya sabha over the Karnataka raids leading to multiple adjournments. Congress member Pramod Tiwari raised a point of order and objected to the Centre sending paramilitary forces to Bengaluru along with Income Tax officials.

Congress MPs trooped to the podium and shouted slogans against the Narendra Modi government saying, “Loktantra ki hatya band karo (Stop killing democracy).”

Arun Jaitley clarified that DK Shivakumar, a Congress MLA who was the target of the I-T raids on Wednesday, has been under the I-T scanner for a while and the resort was not the target.

Responding to Jaitley’s claim that no raids were conducted at the resort, Congress leader Anand Sharma said that the minister and his brother were coordinating the stay of Gujarat MLAs that is why it is a targeted timing. He said that the Opposition will not buy the argument that this is a mere coincidence.

Gujarat Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil later rebutted the finance minister’s statement in the House, claiming that the rooms of the MLAs were also searched.

No business conducted in Rajya Sabha

The Upper House was adjourned five times on Wednesday. The first adjournment took place at 11:30 am for 10 minutes when Congress members created an uproar over the I-T raids in Karnataka. The protests continued even when the session began following which the House was again adjourned for 10 minutes at 12.08 pm. Opposition members weren’t allowing Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien to speak and trooped the Well before the House was adjourned for 15 mins amid chaos at 2.16pm.

When the House reconvened, Congress members Pramod Tiwari and Anand Sharma again raised the issue of paramilitary forces accompanying I-T officials.

“Central forces cannot be sent to a state for any purpose. It is a clear violation of the Constitution. We are a federal country. They sent paramilitary forces without informing the state government. This cannot be accepted,” Sharma said.

The government did not deny the Opposition’s allegations and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the “fight against corruption will not stop no matter how much they shout”.

The House reconvened at 2.25 pm, but soon afterwards the Opposition members walked into the Well. Slogans like “Modi teri Gundagardi nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi” and “Loktantra ki hatya, band karo band karo!” were raised in the Rajya Sabha.

Rajya Sabha was adjourned for another 15 minutes before being adjourned for the day at 2:48pm without transacting any listed business on Wednesday.

Congress support amendment to abortion laws

Meanwhile, the Question Hour progressed smoothly in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

One of the interesting topics that came up were laws related to medical abortion. Congress members espoused amendment of the current laws criminalising medical abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, citing the case of a 10-year-old rape victim who could not get the foetus aborted owing to the law. Congress leader Ambika Soni said that the laws should be made to aid human beings and the humans should not be forced to fit the law.

Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha, again brought up the issue of Karnataka raids and said that Congress MLAs were being threatened and harassed by I-T officials. “I warn everyone that if this kind of vendetta goes on in this country. Then no other party will be present in this democracy. Do not terrorise or threaten people, otherwise, the government will not function,” said Kharge.

Killing of BJP, RSS workers in Kerala

Another raging issue that was brought up, was the killings of BJP and RSS workers in Kerala. From God’s own country, Kerala has transformed into the God’s “forsaken” country, a BJP MP said in the Lok Sabha, coming down hard on the LDF government in the state for “failing” to contain the killing of RSS and BJP workers.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi alleged that the political opponents were being killed in “Talibani style” in the state and even workers of Congress, CPI and Muslim League have been targeted. Another BJP MP Prahlad Joshi said that 17 BJP and RSS workers were killed in Kerala in the last 17 months and demanded a probe into the deaths by either the CBI or the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

GST in Jammu and Kashmir

Once the topic of legislation to extend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to Jammu and Kashmir was raised, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that the party does not support the bill as it’s important that the relationship of the Centre is maintained with the state.

During the debate, BJP’s Anurag Thakur said the people of J&K have to decide whether they will be on consumer’s side or the separatists’ side and in a lighter vein he mentioned the phrase ‘contempt of pappu’ leaving the House in splits for a few seconds.

Arun Jaitley finally explained why it’s important to incorporate Jammu and Kashmir in the same taxation system saying, “If we would not have integrated Jammu and Kashmir in GST, they would have missed out on input credit, making everything much more expensive. The revenue of Jammu and Kashmir would also have been low.”

Finally, Lok Sabha voted and passed the Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir), Bill, 2017 and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir), Bill, 2017 after a brief discussion in which members by and large welcomed the measures. The two bills replaced an order promulgated by the president.

The finance minister also refuted the Congress allegations that GST infringes upon the special status of the state. “A national party like Congress should not have gotten into it. This was an argument given by the separatists,” he said.

The discussion soon moved to Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2017 where Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy echoed Veerappa Moily’s words, saying, “The whole banking system is on the verge of collapse and this ordinance is a single straw. How can we trust the RBI as it has not even been able to count the money that was collected during the demonetisation?”

The Opposition castigated the government over the rising non-performing assets (NPAs), especially in Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) banks, and accused it of failing to tackle the problem. The House was adjourned for the day with plans to continue further discussion on the issue on Thursday.

With inputs from agencies