The opponents had decided on Monday to boycott the proceedings in both houses.
New Delhi:
Fifteen bills passed the Rajya Sabha in the past two days, as the opposition boycotted proceedings in both houses over the suspension of all eight of its members over Sunday’s uproar. Seven of the bills were passed yesterday, eight today. Three of the bills passed were wildly controversial labor laws that have been opposed by most unions, including one affiliated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological mentor.
Rajya Sabha President Venkaiah Naidu, in his farewell speech when parliament again suspended the session indefinitely today, recalled the precedents in which bills were passed after the strike of some members.
“Shri Naidu said that there have been a number of precedents when the bills were passed following the boycott or strike by some members. In this context, he cited the approval of the Finance and Appropriation Bill in 2013,” the statement read. a tweet from Mr. Naidu’s official name as vice president.
The suspension of eight members of the Rajya Sabha over Sunday’s uproar was “unpleasant but unavoidable,” said Naidu, who was not in the Chamber that day.
It was the right of the opposition to protest, “but the question is how it should be done,” Naidu said, adding that it was “the duty to defend the dignity of the Upper House.”
Mr. Naidu also pointed out that the longer boycott deprives members of the opportunity to convey their ideas effectively.
Members of the opposition had decided on Monday to boycott proceedings in both houses after eight members were suspended in chaos after Vice President Harivansh Singh refused to take a physical vote on the farm bills as members demanded.
The annoying members had marched to the House Well, tore up papers, and tried to rip off the microphones.
Today, parliamentarians from Congress and related parties staged a march from the Gandhi statue to the Ambedkar statue at the parliament premises.
In the evening, the opposition leader met with President Ram Nath Kovind and asked him not to accept the farm bills. The passage of the bills in Rajya Sabha was “unconstitutional,” the president was told, Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
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