AAP, BRS, Shiv Sena-UBT stage walkout from Rajya Sabha after chair rejects their adjournment notices
New Delhi (PTI): Members of the Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena Thackeray faction and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Wednesday staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha after their adjournment notices were disallowed by the chair.
Soon after laying of papers, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he has received four notices under Rule 267 from BRS member K Keshava Rao, AAP member Sanjay Singh and Shiv Sena members Sanjay Raut and Priyanka Chaturvedi and disallowed the same.
Rao stood up and raised objection to the Rajya Sabha chairman's remarks on Tuesday on their boycott of the House.
Sanjay Singh also rose to seek a discussion on the Adani issue but was not allowed by the chair as their notices were disallowed.
Soon, the BRS, Sena and AAP members staged a walkout from the House.
The House started the discussion on the motion of thanks to the president's address as there was no Zero Hour and Question Hour. The discussion on the motion of thanks would continue without lunch break.
"I have received four notices under Rule 267 from Sanjay Raut, K Keshava Rao, Sanjay Singh, Priyanka Chaturvedi. I reiterate my stand. I have carefully gone through them. I do not find the notices in order. I am constrained not to allow them," the chairman said.
On BRS member Rao's anguish over the chairman's remarks made on Tuesday, he said, "The kind of aggressive body language you are reflecting is most unfortunate. You have perhaps not had the occasion to go through what I had said yesterday with full sense of sublimity, sobriety and seriousness."
Asking him to take his seat, he said, "This is not the way we conduct this House. What I said is on record, you can take recourse to rules. This is not the way to do it. I have conveyed my sentiments and these are the sentiments of millions of people."
Dhankhar said for the first time in this country, a history of the "wrong type" has been created by engaging in a proclaimed boycott of the President.
"I would urge the members, we are sending a very dangerous signal to people. Their anger is beyond tolerance. Every time in the morning they see this spectacle of the House being plunged into disorder as part of strategy," the chairman said.
AAP, BRS members created uproar by raising slogans of "PM sadan mein aao. jawaab do. JPC se jaanch karao (PM should come to the House and answer and JPC probe should be ordered)" and later staged a walkout.
They later held a demonstration in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises.
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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
