The President of Rajya Sabha suspended eight members of the opposition over the uproar.
New Delhi:
The government’s claims that the rules were followed during the vote on agricultural bills in Rajya Sabha on September 20 and its version of events are in sharp disagreement with the television footage of the proceedings accessed by NDTV. . Voting by voice has been highly controversial. The opposition claimed that the government lacked numbers, which would have been clear if a physical vote had taken place. They also accused Vice President Harivansh Singh, who was presiding over the proceedings, of colluding with the government.
Singh and the government have claimed that the opposition’s demands for a physical vote were denied because the members were not in their seats while making the demand.
Images reviewed by NDTV show that at least two of the three MPs, KK Ragesh and Trichy Siva, who made the motion to send the controversial bills to a select committee, were in their seats when they demanded a split vote.
In addition, the rules were broken by extending the time of the session at the request of the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi. A session can only be extended with the agreement of the government and the opposition.
But in this case, the Rajya Sabha footage clearly showed that around 1.03pm, the opposition leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said: “The opposition parties say that time should not be extended today and tomorrow the minister may reply …”
DMK MP Trichy Siva, a member of parliament for the past two decades, told NDTV: “Usually the house is enlarged after obtaining the consensus of the house.”
But the extension was made “just by looking at the treasury banks … even though members of 12 opposition parties standing up called for a postponement. This is a clear violation of Rajya Sabha Rule 37,” he said.
Calling the Parliamentary Affairs Minister’s request to extend the house until the bills are passed as “normal practice,” Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad later said: “The sense of the house is not assembled by majority and minority “.
Rule 252 (4) (a) of the procedure and conduct of business in the Council of States establishes: “If the opinion of the President regarding the decision of a question is challenged and he does not adopt the course provided for in the sub-rule (3 ) will order a “Division” to be held.
Images of Rajya Sabha were also shown at 1.10pm, when the vice president took Trichy Siva’s motion to send the bills to a select committee, was in his seat and demanded the division of votes. But the motion was rejected by voice vote.
When Kerala CPM member KK Ragesh’s amendment was resumed at 1:11 p.m., he too was in his seat and demanded split votes, the pictures show. But again, the motion was rejected by voice vote.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr. Ragesh said the government’s accusation that the members are not in their seats while demanding division was a “blatant lie.”
By accusing Rajya Sabha Vice President Harivansh Singh of colluding with the government, the opposition passed a no-confidence motion against him, which was denied by the Speaker of the Upper House, Venkaiah Naidu.
The vice president in a statement today denied the opposition accusations with an “incident report” that details minute by minute what happened inside the house. He also attached video footage of relevant parties, during the motions of CPM’s KK Ragesh and DMK’s Tiruchy Siva.
“The statutory resolution disapproving of the ordinance and the amendment for the bill’s reference to the selection committee proposed by Sri KK Ragesh were rejected by voice vote in the chamber at 1.07pm as Sri Ragesh was in the well of the home and not in his seat in the gallery at that time. This can be seen in the video, since after calling him to move his resolution and amendment, I looked at the gallery, but he was not there, “said his note.
Regarding Tiruchy Siva’s motion to send the bills to a select committee, taken at 1.10pm when he was in his seat and demanded split votes, Mr. Singh’s note, citing the chaos at the time, It said: “You will appreciate, that as according to the rules and the practice, to have a division, two things are essential. First, there must be a demand for division and equally important that there must be order in the house.”
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