Speaker to Opposition: 40 MPs want to snatch the rights of 440 members

Although no legislative business was conducted, the Speaker conducted the Question Hour and allowed the Zero Hour, which gave ruling party MPs to raise matters of public importance. Union Ministers and BJP MPs who were replying to the questions made it a point to condemn the Opposition behaviour saying it was against democratic practices.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also condemned the Opposition and said that around 40 MPs want to snatch the rights of 440 MPs who want to participate in business. “Your behaviour is not proper. You want to block all 440 MPs. You are sending a wrong message to the country,” she said repeatedly. The Speaker also asked Lok Sabha TV, which has been blocking the visuals of protests in the well of the house, to show the protests too so that the nation can “watch” it.

Contrary to expectations, SP also joined the protest demanding the release of the caste data. The SP MPs who were not going to the well of the house on Monday rushed to the centre shouting slogans. They even joined the Congress to “demand justice”. Before the house met in the morning, BJP MPs were seen coming and thanking Mulayam Singh for striking a different note amidst the Congress and Left demands for resignation of BJP ministers involved in controversies.

The Congress members, including the party chief, were visibly angry with the SP leader for breaking the Opposition unity against the treasury benches. When Singh stood up to speak on caste census issue, the MPs were hooting him down.

The Congress MPs were joined by the Left members in the well. The MPs raised slogans in Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi apart from their usual Hindi and English slogans.

While TMC MPs were on their feet, they did not come to the centre of the house. NCP MPs also were also standing throughout for three hours.

Congress MPs, Deepender Hooda and Ravneet Singh Bittu, were seen trying to hold placards covering the speaker’s face. At one point, Mahajan was heard saying angrily to Congress MP Kodikkunnil Suresh to take his hands off the speaker’s table.

Parliamentary Affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who wasn’t present in the house initially, slammed the Congress. “People have given us mandate but around 20 people are trying to block the Parliament. What kind of a joke is this? There is a limit for everything. They are using abusive language, attacking the speaker. What is the message they are giving? People have rejected you,” Naidu said.

The BJP MPs led by Ramesh Bidhuri tried to shout down Congress MPs raising slogans against Sonia Gandhi, but Naidu asked them to sit down.