The Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament, ran until 12.24 a.m. Tuesday, setting a new record for sitting past midnight for two consecutive nights after it did so on Sunday as well. And while the Lok Sabha was still buzzing with activity past midnight, a group of eight lawmakers suspended for “serious disorderly conduct” on Monday organized the first night sit-in just outside the Parliament building near the Mahatma Gandhi statue.
Lawmakers were suspended after they stormed the House Well and charged Rajya Sabha Vice President Harivansh on Sunday, who was presiding over proceedings on Sunday, after two of the three farm bills were passed by vote. oral. The opposition wanted the bills to be referred to a select committee and the vote split for approval.
Monday night, as lively as day, presented the two faces of India’s MPs: their commitment to work beyond the stipulated hours in the House and also to assert their democratic right to protest.
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At the Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla, 57, sat through the proceedings until the House rose on Tuesday morning to meet again in the afternoon. The House, which was scheduled to meet for only four hours from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) bill at 8.23 p.m. and at 11.38 p.m. passed the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill Epidemic Diseases (Amendment).
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It did not stop. At 12:22 am, the lower house jointly passed the Central Council of Homeopathy Bill (Amendment) and the Indian Central Council of Medicine Bill (Amendment).
Parliament’s marathon procedures are not unusual. In the 1970s and 1980s, budget discussions often dragged on to the next day. But officials said that perhaps for the first time, the bills were passed after midnight when the president set a new standard for the House’s performance.
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The eight legislators, Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen of the Trinamool Congress; Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party; Rajeev Satav, Syed Nasir Hussain and Ripun Borah from Congress; KK Ragesh and Elamaram Kareem of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) also took the protests to a new level. They spent the night in Parliament, slept under the open sky, and ate all the packaged sandwiches and thalis available to them. Harivansh on Tuesday morning offered them tea.
Kareem, 67, is the oldest of the eight, and Rajeev Satav, 46, is the youngest. It was also Satav’s birthday.
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