The harsh winter session of Parliament was filled with bitterness between the government and the opposition and protests and counter-protests over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks. BR AmbedkarThe first attempt to remove the Vice President in independent India, sparking a historic debate and ugly scene on the 75th anniversary of the Constitution that led to a flurry of police complaints and privilege notices, came to a halt on Friday.
The session also saw the introduction of two landmark bills on simultaneous elections, which were referred to the 39-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). The JPC constituted in August on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was also given extension.
On the last day of the winter session, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) protested in the Parliament complex against Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (India) took out a counter-protest march from Vijay Chowk to Parliament. On Shah’s remarks on Ambedkar earlier this week.
This came a day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) And the Congress accused each other of assault and harassment and filed separate complaints with the police, showing an unprecedented breakdown of decorum in Parliament.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju criticized the opposition for disrupting the proceedings, saying it had resulted in a decline in the productivity of Parliament. “The productivity of Parliament reduced due to the disturbance created by the opposition. We made a lot of efforts to run the proceedings of Parliament smoothly. I expect and request the opposition not to create similar disruption in the budget session.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die minutes after the House adopted a resolution to set up a joint parliamentary committee to examine two bills aimed at simultaneous holding of state and national elections. Opposition members came to the well of the House and raised slogans of Jai Bhim.
“It is the collective responsibility of all members to maintain the dignity and decorum of Parliament. It is not appropriate to protest or demonstrate at any gate of Parliament. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said in his concluding speech.
His remarks came a day after the ruling party leveled allegations against the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. Rahul Gandhi At least one MLA was pushed and injured, while another was injured, while the Congress denied the allegations and said that BJP MLAs blocked Gandhi’s way and pushed Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, causing injury to his knee. It took effect. Birla said that “in case of violation of norms, Parliament has the right to take necessary action to maintain its decorum and dignity” as he urged MPs to “ensure compliance with the rules in all circumstances.”
The productivity of Lok Sabha was 57.87% and that of Rajya Sabha was 40%.
The Upper House was also adjourned sine die after adopting a resolution to nominate 12 members to the JPC that will examine the two bills on simultaneous elections.
“The bitter reality is disturbing, the productivity of this session is only 40.03%, with an effective functioning of only 43 hours and 27 minutes. As MPs, we are facing severe criticism from the people of India and rightly so. These persistent disruptions are continuously eroding public confidence in our democratic institutions,” Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said, a day after his deputy Harivansh rejected the opposition notice for a no-confidence motion against him.
“The increasing trend of publicizing notices through media and resorting to Rule 267 before parliamentary consideration further weakens our institutional dignity. We stand at an important crossroads, India’s 1.4 billion citizens expect better from us. It is time to choose between meaningful debate and destructive disruption. Our democratic heritage demands that we rise above political differences and restore the sanctity of parliamentary deliberations.
In the Lower House, BJP member Nishikant Dubey moved a privilege notice against Rahul Gandhi, demanding his immediate suspension for his “cowardly conduct” of sharing the “criminally edited” clip of Shah on Twitter. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that a similar motion was brought against him. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. The development comes a day after Kharge moved a privilege motion against Shah alleging contempt of the House.
Dubey said, “This time he (Gandhi) has crossed all limits of sensible behavior expected from the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and has thereby committed the crime of ‘breach of parliamentary privilege’ and ‘contempt of the House’, which requires exemplary punishment. Punishment is required.” A Lok Sabha official, on condition of anonymity, said that more than a dozen privilege motions are pending against various leaders.
Congress rejected BJP’s allegation and accused it of trying to suppress the voice of the opposition. “They (BJP) have to understand that there is an opposition in Parliament which is equally strong and they have to respect its voice,” he said. They are not ready to respect the voice of the opposition, they want to crush things, they do not want any kind of dialogue with the opposition,” said Congress leader Manickam Tagore.
The controversy comes in the backdrop of the controversy that erupted over Shah’s comments on Ambedkar earlier this week. Responding to the debate on completion of 75 years of the Constitution on Tuesday, Shah had attacked the Congress and alleged that the opposition party had repeatedly insulted Ambedkar. “It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar…If he had taken God’s name so many times, he would have got a place in heaven for seven births…” he said.
India Bloc parties shared clips of the first part of his statement, demanding Shah’s resignation and an apology for the charge of insulting the creator of the Constitution. The BJP rejected Congress’s allegations, with Modi accusing the Congress of spreading malicious lies to hide its misdeeds and Shah accusing the Congress of creating “confusion” by “distorting” his statement that he had supported Ambedkar. Have insulted.
The session began on November 25 when the opposition attempted to corner the government over corruption allegations against the Adani Group in the US. But after most of the first week was wasted, Congress found itself isolated and disruptions became less frequent. Lok Sabha passed three bills, including the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and Rajya Sabha passed three bills, including the Oil Sector (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill, 2024. The highlight of the session was the introduction of two bills – the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill – which were referred to the JPC after the opposition forced a vote on the scope of the introduction of the bills. The bill proposes to start the alignment process in 2029 and hold simultaneous elections for the first time in 2034.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill will be a major test of the BJP’s ability to garner support in its favor as the ruling government does not have sufficient numbers to push the constitutional amendment in either House of Parliament. Article 368, which governs constitutional amendments, mandates that such a Bill be passed in each House “by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting” Go.” ,
Special debates were also held in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the occasion of completion of 75 years of the Constitution, where the government accused the Congress of weakening the Constitution and the India Bloc alleged that the BJP was working against vulnerable communities. All top leaders including Modi, Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Health Minister JP Nadda participated in the marathon debate. Two leaders of opposition – Kharge in the Rajya Sabha and Gandhi in the Lok Sabha – along with newly elected Wayanad MPs Priyanka Gandhi and Abhishek Singhvi from the Congress, and Akhilesh Yadav from the Samajwadi Party were among those who participated from the opposition.
This was Priyanka Gandhi’s first session in Parliament.
“We should have worked as much as we could for the country and left no stone unturned in serving the country. But we have seen such activities in Parliament which have affected the functioning and also damaged the dignity of Parliament. Rijiju said, members of the opposition parties have hindered the progress of our work, due to which the productivity rate has reduced significantly.
Congress rejected Rijiju’s allegation. “For us, the productivity of Parliament was 100% because today the entire country knows what the Union Home Minister and Narendra Modi think about Dr. Ambedkar. We assess the productivity of Parliament by the intentions of the government. The Union Home Minister has insulted Baba Saheb Ambedkar. I have complained to the Chairman (Rajya Sabha) that it has been 72 hours since the Finance Minister, Nadda Saheb and the Union Home Minister made allegations against Pandit Nehru which could not be proved. They will not be able to authenticate it,” said Jairam Ramesh of Congress.
