Sonia, Rahul determined to disrupt House, says Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha began on Tuesday with the usual pandemonium by the opposition, but a combative BJP, determined to run the house, hit back at Congress. As Congress MPs resorted to relentless placard-slogan protest, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu demanded further action against the “unruly” MPs suspended only last week. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan requested Lok Sabha TV to broadcast their behaviour to the nation, while BJD—clearly siding with the treasury benches—went on to call Congress action as “fascist”.
The ruling party’s exasperation with the situation was articulated by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday in an outburst where he alleged that even Congress MPs wanted the House to run but Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were determined to disrupt it. On Tuesday, the party showed its determination to combat the Congress by virtually converting the question hour into a platform to attack the previous UPA government.
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The House began with the Speaker rejecting requests of adjournment from Congress, Left, SP and RJD. Soon MPs from these parties stormed the well of the House holding placards and shouting slogans. SP, which seemed to be leaning towards the treasury on Monday, along with RJD had moved an adjournment motion for making caste census report public.
While Congress placards demanded resignation of Sushma Swaraj and Shivraj Chauhan, SP and RJD held placards with their demand on caste census report.
The question hour, meanwhile, kicked in despite the high decibel din. The first salvo was fired by food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal who raked up the issue of Amethi Food Park while replying to a question on food parks in UP. As she took digs at the Congress and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi (without naming him), the treasury benches shouted “shame, shame”.
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Throughout the proceedings Speaker Sumitra Mahajan kept requesting the protesting MPs to take their seats. As MPs blocked the camera with placards, she said, “The chair has no desire to be seen on TV. I request Lok Sabha TV to show the behaviour of MPs so that the nation knows what’s happening here. Just 40 MPs are holding the will of over 440 MPs hostage.”
An exasperated Venkaiah Naidu said, “A handful of MPs are holding the house hostage. Action must be taken. They are going to Speaker’s House, using abusive language.”
Rahul Gandhi was seen actively engaging with his MPs while Sonia Gandhi egged them on to ratchet up the protest. Rahul even went to several other parties such as NCP and TMC to drum up support and eventually garnered some. As MPs began tiring after hours of sloganeering, NCP’s Supriya Sule was seen distributing throat soothing tablets while TMC, which had sat silently, stood up in solidarity with Congress.
As Question Hour continued, BJD MP Pinaki Mishra while asking a question related to the environment ministry launched a vituperative attack on the previous UPA regime calling it a “very corrupt” government where “files went to minister’s house in Chennai” and “touts in the ministry asked for bribes” when POSCO was struggling to get clearance. He even went on to shower praise on environment minister Prakash Javdekar saying he had brought in a fresh air to the system.
Javdekar took on from here and while answering the question highlighted how Rs 35,000 crore meant for afforestation were lying unused due to inaction by the previous regime and raked up the issue of former environment minister Meenakshi Natrajan making allegations of interference by Congress vice President. “Projects were stalled and environment ministry became a roadblock ministry,” said Javdekar.
A little later, demanding declassification of Netaji files, BJD leader in the house Bhatruhari Mahtab called Congress action “fascist”. “We are witnessing manifestation of fascism in this session. Your patience is being tested. But you should not give up and must run the house,” Mahtab said.
Even other BJP MPs saw the question hour an opportunity to attack the Congress with Rajasthan MP Gajender Singh Shekhavat calling the Congress protest “cheer haran of the chair” and Allhabad MP Keshav Prasad asking for all Congress MPs along with Rahul Gandhi to be sent to a mental asylum in either Agra or Ranchi.