Rajya Sabha adjourned again, but MPs remain seated

New Delhi: Continuing their protest over the Cauvery water issue, AIADMK members on Tuesday led to the adjournment of the Rajya Sabha, which was to bid farewell to its retiring members. TDP members, who had been protesting against the government’s unwillingness to grant a special category status for Andhra Pradesh, also joined the AIADMK members in the well of the House. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House, untill it was adjourned for the day by Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

An angry Mr Naidu then adjourned the House for the day leaving Opposition parties surprised. Mr Azad was heard urging members to remain seated in the House. Most of the Opposition members including Congress, BSP, SP, Left and NCP and former PM Manmohan Singh remained seated in the House till 12 noon.

Treasury benches members too were in the House for quite sometime after the Chair had called it a day.

Earlier, the House was adjourned briefly for 15 minutes when Mr Naidu asked leaders of various parties to meet him to resolve the situation.

“We don’t have courtesy even for retiring members,” Mr Naidu remarked as he asked protesting members to go back to their seats. As his appeal went unheeded, he asked both leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of the House Arun Jaitley: “Are we so helpless?”. To this, Mr Azad said the House should function.

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Vijay Goel also appealed to protesting MPs to let the House function. He was seen persuading AIADMK’s V Maitreyan to give up the protest and let the farewell process begin.

As the AIADMK and the TDP did not relent, Mr Naidu adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

When the members reassembled, Mr Naidu again appealed for peace in the House.

As the AIADMK MPs continued protest, Mr Naidu said there were two options — one is to name the protesting members and take action against them, or adjourn the House and deprive retiring members from sharing their experience.

“We are raising Tamil Nadu issue,” Dr Maitreyan said. To this Mr Naidu quipped everybody was concerned about Tamil Nadu which is “part of Bharat Nadu”. However, the AIADMK did not yield.