Lok Sabha adjourned as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleges Rahul Gandhi, George Soros links; Cong hits back at ‘bulldozing attitude’

The House was adjourned in less than a minute.

As soon as Congress MP Venugopal stood up to speak, Speaker Om Birla said, “This is Question Hour. You don’t want to run the House? The House will be run through decorum and according to highest traditions. I will not let the dignity of the House be lowered. I request you to cooperate in the Question Hour. You don’t want to run the House? The House is adjourned till 12 pm.”

At noon, BJP MP Dilip Saikia took the chair and began the proceedings with the laying down of papers after declaring that he had received some adjournment notices but none were allowed.

Even before he announced the beginning of the Zero Hour, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who had on Thursday riled up the Congress by alleging links between Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Hungarian-American businessman Gorge Soros, rose to speak.

Saikia then said he was allowing Dubey to speak as there were some issues when he spoke on Thursday during Zero Hour.

This was met with vociferous protests from the Opposition which said it had moved a privilege motion and the same was not being allowed a mention but Dubey was being allowed to speak.

Saikia said he had received the notice of Congress MP Hibi Eden and the same was under consideration. Eden had submitted a notice to move a privilege motion against BJP MP Sambit Patra for his remarks calling Rahul Gandhi “traitor of the highest order” in a press conference on Thursday, asserting that the usage of “completely defamatory and unparliamentary words” has clearly violated constitutional norms.

Dubey then started speaking and brought up Soros and global investigative news network OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project). “Congress ka haath, Soros ke saath. Congress has relations with the OCCRP. OCCRP is getting all its funds from the US government and George Soros. Did Rahul Gandhi take money from George Soros for Bharat Jodo Yatra?” he shouted.

As Congress MPs stormed the Well of the House in protest, Saikia adjourned the House till Monday.

Outside, Venugopal accused the BJP of bulldozing its way in Parliament. “Government has the way, Opposition has a say. This is parliamentary democracy. Nowadays, we are witnessing a bulldozing attitude of the government to suppress the voice of the entire Opposition. Yesterday, one of the members made a derogatory remark against the Leader of Opposition… Another member made derogatory remarks outside the Parliament. Congress party has given a privilege motion against both of them. As per the convention, whenever a privilege motion is moved, it should be mentioned immediately after laying down of the papers before the Zero Hour. But when we are giving a complaint against the derogatory remarks of a member, the same member is allowed to do the same thing today,” Venugopal said.

Alleging that the government did not want to run the House, Venugopal said, “I think the Speaker is under total pressure from the government. This is totally unfortunate. We need justice from the Speaker… We want to run the House. Even though they did not allow us to raise the Adani issue, we decided to go ahead with government business. But the government does not want to run the House.”

Claiming that the government was scared of the Adani issues, Venugopal said, “In the morning, the House was adjourned within 15 seconds. They are not even ready to give 30 seconds to the Opposition to explain. If a member initiates a privilege motion, the convention is that the member is allowed to raise that issue. One-sided parliamentary procedure cannot be accepted. The government does not want to run the House as they are totally scared of the Congress raising the Adani issue.”

A similar pattern had played out in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. First Congress MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, protested outside Parliament wearing black jackets with stickers that said “Modi Adani Ek Hain” and “Adani Safe Hai”. As the House proceedings began, Dubey raised the issue of Gandhi-Soros links and a ruckus followed.