Standoff continues, Amit Shah to LS: Allow discussion to know truth

Amid the uproar in Parliament, AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh was suspended for the rest of the session, escalating the faceoff and triggering a war of words between the government and Opposition outside the House. The Congress said the PM was “scared of facing questions”, while the BJP countered that the Opposition was “avoiding” a discussion on Manipur.

Seeking to break the logjam, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has called a meeting of floor leaders on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Opposition leaders are also set to meet on Tuesday morning to decide on a joint strategy.

On Sunday evening, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had reached out to three Opposition leaders – Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC) and T R Baalu (DMK) – urging them to allow the smooth functioning of both Houses.

“He requested that Bills should be allowed to pass without any disruption, especially the Multi State Cooperative Societies Bill… On Manipur, he said the government is ready for a discussion,” Baalu told The Indian Express.

The Opposition leaders are learnt to have told him that they would take a collective decision. According to sources, some Opposition parties are facing pressure from their MPs to try and resolve the standoff.

The day began with Opposition MPs belonging to the INDIA alliance staging a protest on Parliament premises seeking a statement by Modi on Manipur, and ruling BJP MPs staging a counter-protest at the Gandhi statue over alleged atrocities against women and Dalits in Rajasthan.

In Rajya Sabha, when the House reassembled at 12 noon, as the Opposition members raised slogans, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, who was in the well of the House, moved closer to the Chairman’s podium to draw his attention, prompting Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to “name” him.

Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal then moved a motion to suspend Singh. Dhankhar put the motion to vote amid the ruckus, and announced the suspension amid a loud “yes” by the ruling benches and an uproarious “no” by the Opposition.

The Opposition leaders later met Dhankhar and demanded that the suspension be revoked. They also walked out of a meeting called by Dhankhar to seek their cooperation for smooth conduct of the House.

When the House assembled in the afternoon, Deputy Chairman Harivansh asked the AAP MP to withdraw from the House since he had been suspended, but Singh did not relent. Amid protests by the Opposition members, the House was adjourned twice.

“We didn’t do anything wrong. The Manipur issue is so serious…the wife of a Kargil war hero was paraded naked….All of us had been demanding that the PM come to the House and make a statement. What is wrong with that? Why can’t the PM make a statement,” said Singh, who later sat on a dharna.

Alleging that he was “targeted”, he said: “When the Chair didn’t listen to me, I went closer to request him to allow me to speak under Rule 267 for which I had given a notice”. He said a total of 27 notices were given by members of various parties for a discussion on Manipur under Rule 267.

Earlier in the day, Rajya Sabha also saw an exchange between Dhankhar and TMC’s Derek O’Brien over the Chair not mentioning the party affiliations of Opposition members who had sought a discussion on Manipur. Dhankhar read out the names of the MPs and their parties while detailing the 11 notices received under Rule 176, mostly from treasury benches, seeking short-duration discussions over violence in states ranging from Rajasthan to Manipur. But when he read out the notices received under Rule 267 from Opposition MPs, who sought to set aside the day’s business to take up the Manipur issue, he did not mention the party affiliations.

In Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah said he was “ready for a discussion on Manipur in the House”. “I request the Opposition to let a discussion take place on this issue. It is important that the country gets to know the truth on this sensitive matter,” he said.

“Considering the Manipur situation, the PM should come to the House and make a suo motu statement,” Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said. As Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi intervened, the Opposition started sloganeering.

“You can have a discussion but you cannot decide who will reply. The concerned minister will reply,” said the Speaker. The Opposition members then went to the well of the House, holding placards that read “INDIA stands for Manipur”.

The Speaker took up Question Hour and the ministers replied to five questions listed for the day. While the proceedings were adjourned till 12 noon, the Opposition continued the protests when the House met in the afternoon too.

Amid the ruckus and repeated adjournments, the treasury benches introduced three Bills – the National Dental Commission Bill, 2023, National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill, 2023, and a Bill to include two communities of Chhattisgarh in the list of Scheduled Castes – and withdrew the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019.

The standoff in Parliament led to charges and counter-charges outside the House.

“It is shameful that the PM is making a statement outside the House when Parliament is in session. It is his duty to make a comprehensive statement inside Parliament on the Manipur violence. Therefore, we are requesting the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha that the PM should make a statement… We want a discussion under Rule 267. But the ministers of the Modi government say there will only be a short duration discussion…Under Rule 267, the discussion can be held for hours… there can be voting as well. We want that. The Modi government and the BJP cannot run away from their constitutional responsibility and accountability on Manipur,” said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

“Parliament is dysfunctional because the PM is scared of facing questions. He refuses to enter the House of which he is elected leader. Manipur is in the middle of a civil war, but the PM is hiding behind his subordinates. The entire nation is seething because he has allowed this crisis to spiral out of control, and his silence is beyond shameful,” said Congress leader K C Venugopal.

“Parliament did not function for the third day because of the continued refusal of the Modi Govt to accept the demand of INDIA parties for a comprehensive statement by the PM in the House… to be followed by a discussion. INDIA parties are only reflecting the sentiments of the people of Manipur and indeed of our country. Why is the PM running away from speaking inside the House?” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor accused the BJP of “misusing” the tragic suffering of women in Manipur to promote “whataboutery” by citing attacks on women in Opposition-ruled states.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who hails from Rajasthan, maintained that discussions should also be held on West Bengal and Rajasthan. “Opposition wanted a discussion on Manipur and the government agreed to it… But it (discussion) should be on Bengal and Rajasthan also. What is their problem if the issue (atrocities against women) is discussed in totality,” he said.

“The government is ready for a discussion on Manipur but the Opposition is avoiding it. They are also running away from the proceedings of Parliament. What is their compulsion? They want to remain in the limelight but do not want to be in the discussion,” said I&B Minister Anurag Thakur.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani also alleged that the Opposition was running away from a discussion in Parliament.

Meanwhile, addressing Indian Forest Service probationers later in the day, Dhankhar emphasised the importance of “decorum and discipline”. “As Chairman, Rajya Sabha… I am working in a manner using everything under my command to ensure the temple of democracy, in the largest democracy, has decorum and discipline. To enforce decorum and discipline, sometimes we have to take recourse to unpalatable situations, but we must never hesitate because decorum and discipline are connected with our growth, with our reputation, with our prosperity. The moment we take a lenient view, we do not serve well to society,” he said.