Venkaiah Naidu urges MPs to not disrupt, Congress hits back

Sparks flew in the Rajya Sabha on Friday as Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu asked the MPs to not disrupt the House and instead discuss the issues, and the Congress hit back saying this was not happening for first time.

Soon after the papers were laid on the table in the morning as the House met for the day, Naidu gave a brief lecture to the MPs on the need to discuss issues on the floor of the house instead of disrupting the proceedings.

He said that "people were getting impatient" by seeing day after day that Parliament is not functioning.

"You cannot resolve the issues physically or by bringing placards to the House. Discuss, debate and decide. I don't know what is happening here...You cannot say 'either go my way, or highway'. That's no way," Naidu said.

As soon as he finished, senior Congress member Satyavrat Chaturvedi stood up and said: "Nobody can disagree with the views expressed by you Mr. Chairman. The House must function."

"But I would like ask you one thing: Is it for the first time in your long political career that you are seeing such disruptions? Haven't you seen this earlier? This House has been stalled for a whole month at stretch in the past."

At this, Naidu said it was no logic that if something wrong has been done in the past, it would be done in the present too, before he adjourned the House till 2.30 p.m.

The Rajya Sabha has not been able to transact any business for two weeks in a row due to disruptions by various groups including the opposition, the Telugu Desam Party and the AIDMK parties.

The opposition has been demanding discussion on the frauds in the public sector banks, particularly the latest multi-thousand crore rupees Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam which involves diamontaire Nirav Modi and his relative Mehul Choksi, under the adjournment motion. However, Chairman Naidu is not admitting notices under adjournment rules.

Nirav Modi, who fled India just before the PNB scam came to light in January, was seen in a photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late January.

The TDP members have been agitating for special status to Andhra Pradesh and accusing the central government of going back on its promises.

The AIADMK has benn demanding the formation of Cauvery Water Management Board to resolve the issue of distribution of Cauvery water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

--IANS

mak/vd