The functioning of both houses of Parliament was on Tuesday disrupted following intense Opposition protests over the 2G Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report and the Telangana Congress MPs’ no-confidence motion against their own government. BJP members were particularly miffed that their dissent note in the JPC report was watered down to suit the government.
In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP wanted to raise the issue of dilution of its dissent note in the final report, but Deputy Chairman P J Kurien disallowed it.
Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, quoted Article 105 saying he had the right to administer a note of dissent as a member of the JPC. “I had given a strong dissent note... the report should not have been tabled,” said Prasad. He added, “This report should not be allowed to be presented on the Floor of the House… those who were guilty have been saved.” Interestingly, later the Chairman expunged two words from Prasad’s speech as being unparliamentary.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley backed Prasad asking the Chair to give a ruling on whether the Chairman of a Parliamentary panel can delete only some unparliamentary words or “can alter the substance of the dissent note given by a member”.
Meanwhile, even as Speaker Meira Kumar was seeking leave of the House to move the T-motion, pandemonium prevailed in the Lok Sabha and the House for adjourned for the day. edit: P10, More: P5, p11
