Din in Houses, no business

The National Herald case cast its shadow on the Parliament on Tuesday, which failed to transact any business as Congress members, guided by a combative Sonia Gandhi and supported by MPs of the Trinamul Congress (TMC), repeatedly disrupted both Houses alleging “vendetta politics”.

Both the Houses were repeatedly adjourned before the final adjournment minutes past 3 pm as the Congress members were unrelenting in their protest. No sooner had both the Houses assembled for the day at 11 am, Congress members stormed the well, shouting slogans against the government. In the Lok Sabha, the TMC joined the Congress in the protest against “political vendetta”. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, while asking the protesting members to go to their seats, took up Question Hour but adjourned the House soon for 30 minutes due to the uproar. “I am ready to allow you to speak but I don’t know what your issue is. Someone tell me what is your issue,” she said.

She asked Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge to explain what his party was protesting against. But Mr Kharge did not respond to her as Mrs Gandhi, sitting next to him, gestured him apparently not to say anything.

“Down with dictatorship... Vendetta politics won’t work,” the Congress members shouted under Mrs Gandhi’s guidance. As protests continued when the House re-assembled at 12 pm, it was adjourned till 2 pm.

As the LS reassembled at 3 pm, MoS for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said he was “surprised and shocked” over the attitude of Congress MPs. He wondered, “Kya aisa gunah kiya humne (what wrong have we committed) If Sonia Gandhi feels that the government has done something against her, then she should say that in the House. If a court has done something, how is this House responsible We are asking for clarity.”

In the Rajya Sabha, after repeated adjournments, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said it is painful to see the “atmosphere of political vendetta” in the country where ruling party seems all out to make an “Opposition-free India” for the last over the one and a half years. “During the election campaign, the NDA had given the slogan of ‘Congress-free India’... this government not only wants ‘Congress-free India’, it wants ‘Opposition-free India’”, he said. “There are two sets of law governing parties — one for the ruling party and the other for the Opposition,” he said.