Updated: September 28, 2020 7:28:29 am
Opposition leaders stage a protest in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (Photo by RSTV / PTI)
In response to The Indian Express’ report that two opposition MPs were in their seats when they called for the split on farm bills, Vice President Harivansh, in a statement Sunday, said it was “true” that the DMK MP Tiruchi Siva had demanded a division of his seat but noted that “order in the House” is “equally important” to have a division.
The Indian Express, after reviewing the official images of Rajya Sabha TV between 1:00 p.m., when the vice president extended the session, until 1:26 p.m., when the House rose for 15 minutes, reported that Siva had demanded a division of your seat at 1:10 p.m. . And that CPM’s KK Ragesh was also in his seat at 1:11 pm when he demanded a split on an amendment he introduced to the bill.
This contradicted the vice president’s claim that members had to be in their seats to request a split.
In his statement today, the Vice President said: “The statutory resolution disapproving of the ordinance and the amendment for the reference of the bill to the selection committee proposed by Sri KK Ragesh were rejected by voice vote by the chamber at 1.07 pm when Sri Ragesh was in the well of the house and not in his seat in the gallery at that time. “
“This can be seen in the video, because after calling him to move his resolution and amendment, I looked at the gallery, but he was not there,” he said.
The images show Ragesh in his seat at 1:11 p.m. when his amendment to the bill was picked up during clause-by-clause consideration of the bill. Clause-by-clause consideration of the bill began after the statutory resolutions and motions proposed by members, including Ragesh, to refer the bills to a select committee were in place.
“It is true that Sri Tiruchi Shiva demanded a division in his amendment to refer to his bill to select the committee from his seat at 1.10 pm You will see in the same video that around 1.09 pm, a member was tearing the book of rules and throwing myself. In addition, I was surrounded by some hostile members, who were trying to take my papers, ”said the vice president.
The vice president said that “according to rules and practice, to have a division, two things are essential. First of all, there must be a demand for division and it is equally important that there is order in the house. “The vice president’s office also issued an” incident report “on the House’s minute-by-minute procedures from 12:56 pm to 1.57 pm.
According to him, when the Minister of Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar, was responding to the bills, “some members ignored the authority of the President, abused the rules of the Council (Rajya Sabha) by persistently and deliberately obstructing its activities.”
Meanwhile, Ragesh wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind saying that his right as a Rajya Sabha deputy was denied during the process in the most “undemocratic” manner.
He said the decision to suspend eight members on charges of “rebellious behavior” in the House had “stemmed from extreme bias by the vice president” and argued that Rajya Sabha TV video footage from September 20, 2020 shows that “none of the reasons cited by the President when suspending the members coincided with the real events ”.
Urging the president not to consent to the bills, Ragesh said: “I repeatedly raised the demand for a vote on the statutory resolution submitted by me on the bills, from my seat number 92, in the Rajya gallery. Saturday around 1.05 pm. I was able to find that the members’ mics were muted and had to yell from the seat for them to split up, as my request to reactivate the mics was also ignored, as if it was part of a well-written move! But curiously, ignoring my appeal, the vice president asked for a voice vote. He went on to state that the statutory resolution was denied by voice vote, regardless of my repeated demand for a split … Later … the motion submitted by me requesting that the bill be referred to the Select Committee was also rejected. .. the motions put forward by members Tiruchi Siva and Derek O’Brien also had to face a similar total indifference from the Vice President. I could clearly see that Shri Siva, then, was seen shouting from his seat because of the division of the vote. He also claimed that his mic was muted! As in the case of my experience, Chair did not look at him at all, ”he added.
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