September 27, 2020 4:35:08 am
Video capture of MPs in Rajya Sabha during the current monsoon session of parliament, in New Delhi, on Wednesday, September 23, 2020. (Photo RSTV / PTI)
JUSTIFYING his rejection of the Opposition’s demand for a split of votes during the chaotic passage of the two agricultural bills in Rajya Sabha last Sunday, Vice President Harivansh said the demand was not made by members from their seats. Amid the uproar in the House, he was heard saying that members have to be in their seats to demand division.
Official images from Rajya Sabha Television, reviewed by The Indian Express, show otherwise.
In fact, the sequence of events from 1 pm – when the Vice President extended the session – to 1.26 pm, when the Chamber was suspended for 15 minutes, shows that at least two members, Tiruchi Siva of DMK and KK Ragesh of CPM, Resolutions, motions and amendments had been statutorily moved, were in their seats when they demanded a division.
Consider the following.
1 pm: The vice president tells Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who was responding to the discussion on the two bills, that it was 1pm. The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Prahlad Joshi, proposes the enlargement of the Chamber.
The vice president asks if the House was ready to sit down until the draft bill. Congressmen Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh demand that the proceedings continue on Monday. They and Siva ask the Vice President to make sense of the House. The vice president says there is consensus (aam sahmati) and asks Tomar to continue.
Members run to the well shouting slogans.
1.03 pm: Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad says that if the House is to be enlarged, that should be done “on the basis of consensus.” He adds that most of the political parties “are saying that the time should not be extended today and tomorrow the minister can respond …”
1.07 pm: The vice president begins to prepare the statutory resolutions before the approval of the bill amid shouts of slogans from members of the opposition. Call KK Ragesh from CPM, who had filed a legal resolution. He tells an unidentified member in the well to go to his seat in the gallery above. Ragesh is sitting on the gallery.
1.08 pm: The statutory resolution is denied by voice vote. He then takes a motion filed by Ragesh seeking a referral of the bill to a select committee. The motion is rejected by voice vote.
1:09 pm: He accepts a motion made by Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress seeking a referral of the bill to a select committee. The motion is rejected by voice vote. You can hear a voice seeking division.
Then the audio turns off for a couple of seconds.
The vice president says that the demand for division must be made from the seat.
13.10 h: He accepts a motion presented by Tiruchi Siva, a member of DMK, seeking a referral of the bill to a select committee. The motion is rejected by voice vote. The images clearly show Siva in his seat, one hand raised demanding division. O’Brien rushes to the president’s podium with a copy of the rulebook in hand and yells “you can’t do this … what’s the rule.” The images show Siva still in his seat.
1:11 pm: The vice president begins clause-by-clause consideration of the bill. He takes up Ragesh’s proposed amendments to clause II. The images show Ragesh in his seat upstairs demanding division. The amendments were rejected in a voice vote.
13.12 h: The images show Ragesh in his seat and Siva tearing papers from his seat. The commotion intensifies.
13:13 h: Unidentified member tries to pluck microphones installed on the president’s podium.
1:14 pm: Audio turns off and stays off.
1.26 pm: House postponed for 15 minutes.
When contacted, O’Brien said he yelled “division” from his seat when the motion he had proposed was made seeking a referral of the bill to a select committee.
“Between us, Siva and I have 30 years of experience in Parliament. We knew we had moved movements, we had the headphones on. Of course, we were in our seats. Our calls to the ‘division’ (vote) were blatantly ignored several times. The video and audio evidence is damning. At least four Rules of Parliament were broken, ”he told The Sunday Express.
When contacted, Ragesh said: “I went to the Well when the President extended the time. But when the Minister stopped his speech and the Vice President began the process of disposing of the statutory resolutions, I quickly returned to my seat upstairs … I was in my seat when my search for references of the bill to a select committee. I yelled division but the vice president didn’t look at me. When the vice president accepted my amendment after O’Brien and Siva motions, my microphone went live. The vice president looked at me … when the president looked at him … only then did the camera focus on you … again I yelled for division … he took a voice vote and denied the amendment. “
Explaining why the Opposition asked for a postponement until Monday, Ragesh said: “Since half of the Rajya Sabha members were sitting in Lok Sabha, electronic voting would not be possible. Voting can only be done by ballot. Therefore, voting even once would have taken at least 30 minutes. That is why we demand that the procedure continue on Monday, as the Lok Sabha session was supposed to start at 3 pm ”.
When contacted, Siva said, “From day one, I have been saying that I was in my seat a lot and asked for a division when my name was called for motion on the select committee. The Select Committee was our central theme. I was very much in my seat and yelled division several times. He (vice president) didn’t look at me. Only when you look at me will you know I’m asking for it. “
The vice president did not respond to questions from The Sunday Express. But sources in the secretariat said he was “distracted” by members approaching his podium as he tried to see that the papers were not taken from him.
The fact that the House was not in order also tied his hands as the heavy legislative business for the session required passage of the legislation on the same day, these sources said. In addition, they argued that if the Opposition had not disturbed the process, there would have been a division of votes, since the first point in itself that was resolved was the statutory resolution of a member of the opposition.
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