Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day amid ruckus over NRC

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday saw repeated disruptions over the Assam NRC issue and was adjourned for the day amid a ruckus in the post lunch session.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was scheduled to reply to the discussion on the issue, could not do so for the second day in a row.

As the House met, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu asked BJP President Amit Shah to resume his speech on the discussion on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam that he could not complete on Tuesday due to pandemonium.

At this, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sukhendu Shekhar Roy raised a point of order and said that as per the rules of conduct of the upper House, a member cannot speak twice on the same issue if he fails to complete his speech in the first instance.

Congress MPs too supported Roy.

However, Chairman Naidu said he had given Shah permission to speak and asked him to continue.

As soon as Shah stood up to speak, TMC members tropped near the Chairman's podium and started shouting slogans asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come in the House and make a statement on the issue.

"Are we at the mercy of one party?... This is unbecoming of Parliament members," Naidu said as he requested the agitating MPs to go back to their seats.

Meanwhile, Amit Shah requested the Chair over the din to go ahead with the reply by the Home Minister and voluntarily sat down.

On Tuesday, Shah's remarks that the earlier governments did not have the courage to implement the Assam Accord signed in 1985 had disrupted the House proceedings.

Naidu called Rajnath Singh to give the reply and asked the members to restore order in the House. However, as the sloganeering continued, the Home Minister tabled his reply in the House amid the din.

Naidu then adjourned the House for the day.

--IANS

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