Karnataka crisis rocks Rajya Sabha; House adjourned for day

PTI, Jul 9, 2019, 3:44 PM IST

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha Tuesday witnessed uproar over the Karnataka crisis with opposition Congress members storming the well of the House and raising slogans, leading to adjournment of proceedings for the day.

The Upper House witnessed protests by members of Congress, TMC, CPI and CPIM as soon as it reconvened at 2 pm following two adjournments earlier in the day The House was adjourned within three minutes as ruckus prevailed.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was chairing the proceedings, made repeated appeals to protesting members to return to their seats, observing that the House has to discuss the Union Budget 2019-20 and Congress leader P Chidambaram was slated to speak on the issue. However, as protests continued, he adjourned the House for the day.

The Congress has been accusing the ruling BJP at the Centre of instigating a rebellion within the Congress-JD-S government in Karnataka. The year-old Congress-Janata Dal (S) coalition government in Karnataka is on the brink of collapse after a spate of resignations by MLAs.

The Karnataka Assembly has 225 members, including one nominated MLA. The halfway mark in the 225-member Assembly is 113. Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned till 2 PM after protests by Congress members continued.

Within minutes of assembly of the House, Congress members stormed into the well shouting slogans that implied that democracy was being killed in reference to developments in Karnataka.

TMC members too trooped into the well against privatisation of public sector units, forcing Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn proceedings till 1200 hours. When the House re-assembled at noon to take up the Question Hour, there were almost similar scenes with slogan shouting Congress and TMC members trooping in the Well.

Harivansh, who was chairing the proceedings at the time, made repeated efforts to persuade protesting members to return to their seats so that the Question Hour could be conducted. However, his appeals went unheeded and the House was adjourned till 2 pm.

Before adjourning the House till 2 pm, he told protesting Congress members that the Chairman had allowed them to raise the Karnataka issue during the Zero Hour, but it was not availed.

Earlier during the Zero Hour, Naidu said he has received a notice under rule 267 from Congress member B K Hariprasad, seeking suspension of the listed business to take up the Karnataka issue. “I am not allowing it,” he said, prompting Congress members to rush to the well shouting slogans.

Naidu also said he has received a notice under rule 267 from Dola Singh of TMC but it cannot be allowed as the same had been raised through a Zero Hour mention on June 21, the first day of the session.

TMC members trooped into the well but the issue they were raising could not be heard. On June 21, one of the issues raised during the Zero Hour was delay by the Centre in according ST status to 11 communities recommended by the West Bengal government.

“As per rules, you cannot discuss the same issues twice in the same session,” Naidu said, adding the House had functioned without disruption for 13 days but now it seems members were determined to disrupt.

“If you have decided to disrupt, I adjourn proceedings till 1200 hrs,” he said. Earlier, BJP leader Lokhandwala Jugalsinh Mathurji, who was elected to the Upper House from Gujarat in the by-polls last week, took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha.