Parliament LIVE Updates, Winter Session of Parliament 2021 Live News: With the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs deepening the political divide and threatening a washout of the entire winter session, backchannel talks were held between the government and the Opposition Monday to find an amicable resolution, but there was no immediate headway.
Parliament Winter Session 2021 Live Updates: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the request for the revocation of suspension of 12 MPs on Tuesday and said, “The Chairman of the Rajya is empowered to take action and also the House can take action.” Following this, Opposition parties including Congress, DMK and National Conference walked out of Rajya Sabha and the chairman adjourned the House till 2 pm.
The Opposition parties, after holding a meeting to chalk out strategy on attending the Winter Session of Parliament, had gone to meet Naidu over the matter. The parties included INC, DMK, Shiv Sena, NCP, CPM, CPI, RJD, IUML, MDMK, LJD, NC, RSP, TRS, Kerala Congress, VCK and AAP.
With the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs deepening the political divide and threatening a washout of the entire winter session, backchannel talks were held between the government and the Opposition Monday to find an amicable resolution, but there was no immediate headway. The Congress, sources said, did not reveal its mind immediately. Some Congress leaders said boycotting the session would be an extreme response.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju will on Tuesday introduce the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021 and health minister Mansukh Mandaviya will move the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020 in LoK Sabha.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will move The Dam Safety Bill, 2019 in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The bill, already passed by Lok Sabha, provides surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of the specified dam for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
A Bill to repeal the three contentious agricultural laws, against which farmers have been protesting for over a year, was passed in both Houses of the Parliament without any discussion on Monday.
In Lok Sabha on Monday, the Opposition came to the Well of the House demanding a debate on the Bill and raised slogans and banners. Speaker Om Birla said he was ready to allow discussion on the Bill provided the protesting MPs go back to their seats and there is order in the House.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking outside the Parliament ahead of the commencement of the Winter Session, said the government was ready to discuss and reply to queries about all issues. “The government is ready to debate any issue and answer any question. We should debate in Parliament and maintain the decorum of the proceedings,” Modi said.
The Trinamool Congress neither attended the morning meeting of Opposition leaders convened by Kharge nor the one after the suspension of the 12 MPs though two among them are from the party.
Earlier in the day, Venkaiah Naidu referred to the incident of the last session. In his opening address, he said “bitter and unpleasant experiences” of the monsoon session “still continue to haunt most of us”.
“The treasury benches wanted a detailed inquiry into the conduct of some members during the final two days of the last turbulent session,” he said, adding that he had tried to reach out to leaders of various parties.
“Some of them made it clear that their members would not be a party to any such inquiry. Some leaders, however, expressed concern over the way the functioning of the House was derailed during the last session and condemned the unruly incidents,” Naidu said.
“On my part, I was expecting and waiting for the leading lights of this august House to take the lead in expressing their outrage over what had happened during the last session with assurances of introspection and spirited efforts to prevent recurrence of such incidents. Such assurances by all concerned would have helped me in appropriately handling the matter. But unfortunately, it was not to be,” he said, referring to unruly scenes in the House on August 11 during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill.
