Parliament disruptions drown no-confidence motion again

A clutch of no-confidence motion notices served by different opposition members could not be taken up yet again on Tuesday with Speaker Sumitra Mahajan citing lack of order in the House and adjourning the Lok Sabha for the day.

Majahan who had first adjourned the Lower House in the morning at 11.02 over disruptions, announced the end of the day’s proceedings a few minutes after the it reconvened at noon.

In the Rajya Sabha, which did not function either over disruptions and frequent adjournments, opposition members protested the adjournment of the House by chairman M Venkaiah Naidu by staying in their seats for half-an-hour after the House was adjourned. There are only six sittings remaining in the current session.

Lawmakers from the AIADMK were in the well protesting and demanding constitution of the Cauvery Management Board to which members from the Congress and the Left protested, standing at their seats. Mahajan announced she would not be able to take up the no-confidence motions till there was order in the House. “I am duty bound…I can’t do it till there is order in the House,” Mahajan said.

Opposition members had come equipped with numbered placards that said “for no-confidence” to drive home the point that more than 50 MPs wanted the no-confidence motion. Leader of the Congress in the LS, Mallikarjun Kharge, insisted that the motions be tabled in the House. “Madam we want a discussion…the support of 50 members of the House is needed, there are many more,” he told the Speaker amid the protests.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar reiterated that the government enjoys confidence of the people inside and outside Parliament. Attacking the Congress, Kumar said, “The Congress has become a marginal party and lost its primacy. It has become a party that follows others.” The Congress had last week joined the list of parties that had already served notices for no-confidence motions against the government.

Tempers ran high in the Lower House even after it was adjourned, with some members of the Congress and the AIADMK nearly clashing after a heated exchange between the two sides, prompting the watch and ward staff to intervene and break up the quarrelling sides.

Congress MP KC Venugopal and AIADMK member PR Sundaram had argued after the Kerala MP’s alleged accusation that there was a match fixing between the Tamil Nadu party and the BJP, leading to the MPs almost coming to blows.