With just four working days left in the Winter Session and some key business yet to be taken up, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Friday adjourned Rajya Sabha for the day after just 17 minutes of proceedings, asking members to use the time to work out a consensus. The House has been rocked by protests over the suspension of 12 Opposition members throughout the Winter Session. Chairman Naidu said: “Today, I had a talk with the Leader of the House, and also some senior members of the Opposition. I would like to appeal to each one of you, please arrive at some sort of consensus. To see that the House functions normally. In order to facilitate discussions among yourselves, I am adjourning the House to meet on Monday.” There were no protests in the House till then. The suspended members continued to sit in protest near the Gandhi statue in Parliament House. Chairman Naidu met leaders of several parties individually. Sources said Congress asked to the government to convene an all-party meeting to resolve the deadlock. Leader of the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal, however, turned down the request, sources said. The Rajya Sabha has barely functioned over the last three weeks, and the MPs’ suspension is just one of the flashpoints. Members have protested over farm matters and other issues as well. The government has not relented in revoking the suspension, demanding an apology first. Most of the Opposition members have been walking out of the House for most of the government business. On Wednesday, some senior Opposition leaders had tried to introduce a motion in the House to revoke the suspension. It was rejected by Naidu, who said that it was not in the correct format. He said the members had not sought his permission. The Winter Session is scheduled to go on till Thursday, December 23. Before the adjournment, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan mentioned the Bills the government wants to bring to the House next week. Some of these are pending, and others will come after they pass through Lok Sabha The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, which raises the minimum marriage age for women to 21, and the Elections Laws (Amendment) Bill will be introduced and considered for passing next week, said Muraleedharan. The Cabinet had approved both on Wednesday. Earlier, Naidu had praised some Treasury and Opposition leaders, who chair certain select committees, for their efficiency. “TG Venkatesh [BJP], Ram Gopal Yadav [Samajwadi Party], Jairam Ramesh [Congress], and some other members who chair Standing Committees are known for holding a number of meetings and giving timely reports. I appreciate them. I hope others, too, will follow their example and see to it that their Standing Committees meet regularly and submit reports at the earliest,” he said. Ramesh immediately stood up and said: “Please tell the ministers to refer Bills to the Standing Committee.” For the last few years, the Opposition has been complaining that the government does not allow bills to go to the Select Committees for more detailed scrutiny. On Friday morning, Naidu had expressed his displeasure over the absence of several ministers who were supposed to lay reports and papers in the House. He asked Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi to ensure that this is not repeated. Naidu said ministers must seek the Chair’s permission to allow someone else to lay the papers on their behalf. At the beginning of the proceedings, Naidu also mentioned the inclusion of Kolkata’s Durga Puja in the “coveted list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO”. He said the festival has been praised for “an all-inclusive approach and cutting across barriers of religion, gender and economic strata”. He said it is seen “as the best instance of public performance of religion and art and as a thriving ground for collaborative artists and designers”.
