New Delhi, May 5 (Inditop.com) It was another day of uproar in parliament Wednesday – this time over the use of unparliamentary language by three MPs that saw the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha being adjourned repeatedly.
The Rajya Sabha was preoccupied through much of the pre-lunch session over Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar’s intemperate comment for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Arun Jaitley and M. Venkaiah Naidu. And the Lok Sabha had to deal with two separate verbal duels — between Trinamool Congress’ Sudip Bandopadhyay and Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) Basudeb Acharia, and BJP’s Ananth Kumar taking on RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
But magnanimity on the part of Acharia and an apology by Aiyar served to cool tempers after much of the pre-lunch session was lost due to protests. Then, the Ananth Kumar controversy erupted, and the Lok Sabha had to be adjourned for the third and the fourth time – the last for the day.
This happened in the post-lunch session when the Lok Sabha was discussing the issue of a suggested caste-based census with Ananth Kumar vociferously opposing this and Lalu Prasad countering equally strongly.
The RJD, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Trinamool MPs demanded an apology from Ananth Kumar for calling Lalu Prasad anti-national. But the BJP member steadfastly refused to do so.
The ruckus continued when the house resumed at 4.44 p.m. and Sumitra Mahajan, who was in the chair, asked Ananth Kumar to resume his speech, saying Speaker Meira Kumar would examine Lalu Prasad’s contention.
With the din refusing to die down, Mahajan adjourned the house for the day.
Against this, the Rajya Sabha functioned without a hitch post the lunch recess, with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh earnestly assuring members that the creation of a Green Tribunal would not impinge on the rights of tribal and forest dwellers.
On his part, veteran Lok Sabha MP Acharia, who is serving his ninth term, said he had closed the Bandyopadhyay chapter in deference to the wishes of members.
He also said he was grateful to Speaker Meira Kumar for her ruling Tuesday that she disapproved of the Trinamool MP’s conduct.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice over the issue. When the house reassembled at 2 p.m., Deputy Speaker Karia Munda invited the leaders of various political parties to speak on the matter.
The leaders, including Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad, Communist Party of India’s (CPI) Gurudas Dasgupta, AIADMK’s Thampi Durai, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Arjun Charan Sethi and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Dara Singh Chauhan requested Acharia to accept Speaker Meira Kumar’s observation in the morning and treat the matter as closed.
Acharia said: “I am grateful for the speaker’s ruling. Observing that the member’s behaviour was unbecoming of a member. In deference to the wishes of the members, I close the chapter.”
The Aiyar-BJP row also ended in the Rajya Sabha when it resumed its sitting in the post-lunch session. Aiyar said he regretted to have “inadvertently and without malicious intent” used the words against Arun Jaitley which were subsequently expunged by the chair.
“The chair has expunged a few words and expressions I used at the start of my maiden speech on the evening of May 3. As one who has been selected for the outstanding Parliament Award, 2006, I regret I have inadvertently and without malicious intent used the expunged words/expressions. I bow to the direction of the chair and seek chairman’s permission to resume my speech,” Aiyar said.
Deputy Chairman K. Rahman then said Aiyar could resume his speech when the house resumed its discussion on the working of the home ministry.
