The government’s construction arm, CPWD, has blamed opposition parties for the silence of the microphones in Rajya Sabha during the passage of contentious agricultural bills in September. It also led to a brief period of silence on Rajya Sabha TV.
The Opposition had accused the Rajya Sabha authorities of deliberately turning off the microphones to silence critics of the Bills.
The CPWD, responsible for the maintenance of the Parliament building, wrote to the Rajya Sabha secretariat: “It is reported that the abrupt interruption in the audio transmission of the Rajya Sabha proceedings between 1:05 p.m. and 1:35 p.m. on 20 September during the Rajya Sabha’s consideration of two farmers’ bills was due to damage to the president’s microphones by the honorable deputies. ”
Some opposition MPs were accused of ripping off Vice President Harivansh’s microphone, breaking into the House Well, throwing papers and the House rule book at the president and abusing him. They threw some papers at the vice president. Up to eight opposition leaders were suspended until the end of the monsoon session for these “serious public unrest” that led to another round of disputes between the opposition and the government.
Read also | Farmer groups say no political party will be allowed to speak at protests, calling Burari’s site ‘open jail’
Although the Opposition denied the uprooting of the microphones, the CPWD corroborated what was said by the government managers. “According to the chair’s instructions, no other microphone was on except the president’s. So when these microphones broke, there was no audio output from the system to RSTV, ”he wrote to Rajya Sabha’s secretariat.
Dismissing any technical problems that caused a disruption, it said, “the sound system worked perfectly and the audio feed was resumed when the broken microphones were replaced with the permission of the sheriffs and the office.”
On September 20, the bailiffs of Parliament formed a double-layered barricade to protect Harivansh, who was presiding over the proceedings when the MPs charged him, apparently for not heeding their demand for a division of votes in the two draft bills of agricultural reform. The bills were approved by oral vote, without being referred to a select committee of Parliament.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress accused each other of failing to respect democratic norms after Rajya Sabha President M Venkaiah Naidu ordered an action against MPs from four opposition parties for their protest in which they broke into the Well of the Chamber and charged towards the Presidency, which at that time was occupied by Vice President Harivansh.
Derek O’Brien, leader of the Trinamool Congress, and his colleague Dola Sen; Sanjay Singh from Aam Admi Party; Rajeev Satav, Syed Nasir Hussain and Ripun Borah from Congress; and KK Ragesh and Elamaram Kareem of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were suspended for seven days each. The last time a large group of deputies was suspended from the Upper House was in 2010, when seven deputies from three parties were excluded for the rest of the session for their protests against the Women’s Reserve Bill.
.
