Protests mar another day in Parliament: Lok Sabha passes Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill amid chants of 'CBI BJP ka tota hai'

The penultimate day of the Winter Session of Parliament progressed like most other days this session — amid chaos and constant sloganeering by MPs over various issues. Lawmakers made little headway in the agenda set for the day in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, though the Lower House passed the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, moved by Minister of State for Law PP Choudhury.

The highlights of the day include defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement in the Lok Sabha on the government’s orders to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s response to her statement; the passage of the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill in the Lower House; the suspension of four Lok Sabha MPs; and the JPC report on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill being tabled in the Lok Sabha.

Another unproductive Rajya Sabha session

All the highlights of the day are from the Lok Sabha as the Rajya Sabha barely functioned for 30 minutes.

Before adjourning the House around 11.10 am, 10 minutes into convening, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he had received notices from some members under Rule 267 for suspension of business to take up discussions on issues but has not allowed any of the notices. After MPs didn’t pay heed to his appeals to take their places and allow the House to function, he adjourned the Rajya Sabha, saying: “This is not the parliamentary way of functioning. You can discuss all the issues under relevant rules.”

The Rajya Sabha was, once again, adjourned within minutes of reconvening at 2 pm, with Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh in the chair.

MPs protest over various issues

Proceedings in both Houses were stalled due to sloganeering by MPs over a number of issues, including a CBI investigation against Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on alleged illegal mining and the Rafale deal.

Members of the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were up on their feet as soon as listed official papers were presented in the Rajya Sabha, crying “political vendetta” over the CBI initiating an inquiry into alleged irregularities in the mining of minor minerals during 2012 and 2016, when Akhilesh held the mining portfolio in the Uttar Pradesh government along with that of the chief minister.

Members also raised the issue of violence by the BJP in Kerala over the entry of two women in the Sabrimala temple. The BJP, in turn, brought up the incident of its MP Muralidharan’s house in Kannur being attacked during the protests over the Sabarimala issue.

At the same time, Congress MPs continued to demand an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the Rafale fighter jet deal, with chants of “chowkidaar chor hai” being raised once again.

Slogans such as “tote se gathbandhan bandh karo” and “CBI BJP ka tota hai” (stop collusion with parrot CBI and the CBI is BJP’s parrot) disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha repeatedly by SP leaders, one of whom also reminded the saffron party in Parliament that the agency would not vote in the 2019 polls, the people of the country would.

Sitharaman’s statement in Lok Sabha on HAL

Rejecting “doubts” raised by the Congress on her statement on HAL contracts as “incorrect and misleading”, Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha that the government-run defence undertaking has been awarded works worth over Rs 26,000 crore, and that projects amounting to Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline. Her clarification came amid a political furore over her statement in the House regarding orders placed with HAL, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleging that she had “lied” that government orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore were provided to the company.

Amid protests by Opposition members, Sitharaman told Lok Sabha: “I would like to set all doubts to rest… The doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading.”

The minister said she has received confirmation that contract amounting to Rs 26,570.80 crore have already been signed between 2014-18. The procurement order specifically mentions 83 Tejas aircraft worth Rs 50,000 crore, 200 helicopters worth Rs 20,000 crore, 19 dornier aircraft worth Rs 3,400 crore, other helicopters worth Rs 15,000 crore and aero-engine worth Rs 8,400 crore. She pointed out that with the orders worth Rs 73,000 crore in the pipeline, the total comes to Rs 1 lakh crore.

“The documents clearly confirm correctness of my statement and the doubts raised in this regard are incorrect and misleading,” Sitharaman said.

Congress MP KC Venugopal then brought up that his party has moved a breach of privilege against the defence minister for “misleading the House”. To this, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the notice was with her.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge quoted HAL CMD R Madhavan to support his party’s contention that the company was struggling financially, demanding a JPC probe into the matter. He also claimed that Sitharaman had sought to correct her statement and said wrong facts should not be put before the House.

Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal questioned whether Kharge would authenticate the report he was quoting, while some other BJP leaders took a jibe at the party while referring to a defence dealer, who is wanted in criminal cases.

Speaker suspends four MPs

The Lok Sabha Speaker suspended four parliamentarians — three from the AIADMK and one Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lawmaker — for two days for disrupting the proceedings of the House.

AIAMDK MPs KN Ramachandran, P Venugopal and KK Gopal were protesting in the Well over the proposed construction of a dam by Karnataka on the Cauvery river, while TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad, whose party has been raising the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, played a Tamil song in the House. Sivaprasad, known for sporting different costumes in Parliament, was dressed like former Tamil Nadu chief minister MG Ramachandran and held a whip in his hand. This time, he also played a khartal, a percussion instrument mainly used for devotional songs, in the House.

Mahajan ordered suspension of the four members for “abusing the law of the House” after giving them several warnings.

Last week, the Speaker had suspended 45 members for unruly behaviour, including 24 AIADMK members. On Thursday, Mahajan had suspended 21 MPs of the AIADMK, TDP and an ‘unattached’ YSR Congress member.

Statements outside Parliament

While proceedings were adjourned in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, political leaders and ministers held a number of press conferences, addressing issues that they were unable to bring up in Parliament amid the din.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad flayed Rahul Gandhi over his allegations related to the Rafale deal, claiming that the Congress’ opposition to the fighter jet agreement with France was just for show, and that the party was putting national security at risk by doing so. He also brought up the alleged role of the Congress and its high command in the AgustaWestland case.

Prasad claimed that it was now clear that middlemen had been pushing the Congress to go for Eurocopters over the Rafale jets in 2011. “Rahul Gandhi can’t deny his relations with Christian Michel,” he said, referring to the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland case.

Soon after, Rahul spoke to reporters, and said Sitharaman had not answered his questions in her address to the Lok Sabha on Friday. He accused the defence minister of lying in the Lok Sabha,

“When I asked her a yes or no type of question, she started a drama. I am not asking her to speak for hours… Sitharaman didn’t answer whether IAF had objected to Narendra Modi’s interference in the Rafale deal. She also didn’t answer on what basis Reliance Defence was given Rs 30,000.”

Asking why the government was not paying its dues to HAL, Rahul also took a dig at the prime minister. “_Desh ke chowkidar Lok Sabha mein aane se darte hai (_the country’s watchman is scared to come to the Lok Sabha. Give me 15 minutes with Modi. He won’t come (to the Lok Sabha) because chowkidar ne chori kari hai (the watchman stole from India).

He also said that Sitharaman was less of a defence minister and more a spokesperson for the defence ministry and Narendra Modi. He questioned whether the ministry had objected to Modi’s interference in the Rafale deal.

Earlier in the day, soon after the Houses the adjourned within minutes of convening, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad addressed the media: “Many parties were against Rajiv Gandhi, too, but he never said cases will be filed against them. So why all this against the mahagathbandhan… This kind of dictatorship will not work.”

He added that four and a half years ago, Modi had spoken about employment, farmers’ issues and women’s security, but the government had actually worked on how to use the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department.

On the agenda

The Congress and BJP had both issued a three-line whip to their MPs to be present in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The three-line whip is a strict instruction to MPs that necessitates their presence in the House and participation in any voting. Any breach of the whip has consequences including disciplinary action.

The bills that were on the agenda in the Lok Sabha were the DNA Technology Regulation Bill 2018, the National Medical Commission Bill 2017, the Dentists (Amendment) Bill 2017, the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018, NCTE (Amendment) Bill 2018, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill 2018.

In Rajya Sabha, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018 was on the agenda, along with the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill 2019, the National Commission for Homeopathy Bill 2019, the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Consumer Protection Bill 2018 and the Appropriation (No.6) Bill 2018.

With inputs from PTI