Govt demands exemplary action against unruly MPs

Seven Union Ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government held a joint press conference in New Delhi’s Shastri Bhawan to demand stringent possible action against the unruly Rajya Sabha members who entered the Well of the House, climbed the table and threw book at the Chair on Monday. A report by Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi:In an unprecedented and surprising move, seven Union Ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government held a joint press conference in New Delhi’s Shastri Bhawan to demand stringent possible action against the unruly Rajya Sabha members who entered the Well of the House, climbed the table and threw book at the Chair on Monday.

On August 9, a video of Pratap Singh Bajwa, Congress Party’s Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, was shared in the social media in which he was admittedly seen climbing the table in the Well of the Rajya Sabha and throwing a book at the Chair.

Later, Bajwa owned up the act and said he did it as he was not allowed to raise farmer’s issues in the House.

However, his behaviour and subsequent events, including the incident of manhandling in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, have not gone down well with the government.

“I strongly condemn the behaviour and demand strict action against the members who climbed the table, manhandled the marshals. The action should be to set an example,” Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi told the reporters.

‘Threat of more disturbances’

Joshi said when the government approached the opposition members to allow the passage of other bills after the passage of the 127th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2021 that would restore States and UTs right to decide OBC list, the treasury bench was threatened by the opposition parties of dire consequences.

“We were threatened that if you try to pass the bill, insurance bill and other bills, except the 127th Constitutional Amendment Bill, then more disastrous things will happen. More than climbing to the table will happen,” Pralhad Joshi said.

Joshi said in their meeting with Venkaiah Naidu, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, today morning, they have demanded stringent action against unruly members.

Joshi also rejected the Opposition’s charge that the government was passing the Bills without any discussion.

“What is happening in West Bengal? In Rajasthan 13 Bills were passed in one hour,” said the minister.

High-level committee for probe

Senior BJP leader and Leader of the Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal said they have conveyed its demand to the Chairman Rajya Sabha for taking stringent action against such members.

“It was a shameful disgrace in the parliamentary history of India. They are trying to divert the attention from the main issues,” Goyal said while demanding action against the unruly members.

“They had the intent of lowering the dignity of the House. They allowed the passage of the 127th Constitutional Amendment Bill, had they cooperated, all the Bills would have passed with such debates,” Goyal added.

“We strongly condemn the conduct of the Opposition. We demand strong action against all those members, who indulged in incidents on August 4 and 9 and also on other days,” said the minister.

No outside security officials in Rajya Sabha: Goyal

In response to a question, Piyush Goyal also rejected NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar’s allegation that women Rajya Sabha members were manhandled in the House by security staff as the government has called 40 security members from outside.

“Only 30 marshals, 18 men, and 12 women marshals were deployed and that was necessary. All the members were Parliamentary Security Service officials. There was no one from outside,” Goyal told the reporters in response to the question.

Goyal also justified curtailing the sitting of the Parliament by two days, saying the Government was threatened that if it tried to pass other Bills on Friday or Monday then the bigger incidents than what happened on August 9 will happen.

“We were told that the August 9 incident was only a trailer,” he added.

Goyal said there was no time to take action against the unruly members as per the existing rules and regulations and the matter was serious enough to conduct a detailed inquiry.

“We demand the formation of a high level committee on the lines of the committee formed during the time of Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee as the conduct was so grave that it could not have been dealt with under the ordinary rules and regulations,” he said.

Goyal said there should be a very detailed inquiry, the CCTV footage should also be looked into.

Naqvi demands exemplary action

In response to a question about Congress member Pratap Singh Bajwa’s statement that he would ‘repeat the incident 100 times if he was not allowed to speak’, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said he wanted such a strong action against such members.

“We demand a strong action against such members so that any member thinking of indulging in such acts in future should think a hundred times before doing such things,” Naqvi told reporters.

Women MP seen mishandling lady marshal: Yadav

Labour Minister and Rajya Sabha member Bhupender Yadav rejected the Opposition’s charge of women marshals mishandling women MPs.

“The member who has alleged manhandling, she herself has been seen manhandling a woman marshal, CCTV footage is there. What other CCTV footage they want,” Yadav told reporters.

“Why they went into the Well, books are not for throwing, tables and chairs are for sitting, not for climbing. There is no place for violence in a democracy,” noted the minister.