Raghav Chadha urges RS chairman to discuss Manipur issue under Rule 168

AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Thursday urged Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to discuss the Manipur issue in the House under Rule 168 as a motion instead of a short duration discussion.

His request came amid a stalemate in Rajya Sabha over the rule under which a discussion on the issue should be taken up.

Chadha has already given a notice for taking up the discussion on Manipur under Rule 168 through a motion to be moved by him.

While the chairman has said that notices for a short-duration discussion on the Manipur issue under Rule 176 has been accepted and the government has agreed, the opposition is demanding that the debate be held under Rule 267 without any time limit.

"Under Rule 168 of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in Rajya Sabha, I hereby give notice of my intention to move the following motion on the issue of general public interest during the current/ensuing session of Rajya Sabha," the AAP's Rajya Sabha member said in his notice.

"That this House expresses its deep sense of anguish at the persistence of violence in the state of Manipur since May 2023, leading to loss of lives of a large number of persons, destruction of property worth crores of rupees, rendering thousands of citizens homeless and increase in horrendous incidents of crimes against women due to failure of the central government in discharging its constitutional responsibility of protecting states against internal disturbance under Article 355," Chadha said.

To break the logjam in the Upper House of Parliament, Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi reached out to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other opposition leaders. But the over half-an-hour meeting between opposition parties and the government remained inconclusive.

The opposition in the Rajya Sabha has stuck to its demand for a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in both Houses of Parliament, followed by a comprehensive discussion, even though sources said it has relented on its stand for holding such discussion under Rule 267.

In the meeting, sources said the suggestion of discussing the Manipur issue under Rule 168 was made to opposition leaders.