The government’s version of the rules that were followed during the approval of the agricultural bills in Rajya Sabha on September 20 has been challenged by television footage of the procedures accessed by NDTV. The passage of the bills has been a subject of great controversy, with eight members of the opposition being suspended from the chamber by Rajya Sabha President Venkaiah Naidu after an uproar during the process.
Rajya Sabha Vice President Harivansh Singh and the government have justified the approval of the agricultural bills by oral vote, saying that the opposition was not in their seats when they demanded split votes.
Opposition parties have argued that they had to go to the Chamber Well to protest just because the chair violated house rules. The disruption, they said, began around 1 p.m., when the vice president extended chamber proceedings without gaining consensus from the chamber.
DMK MP Trichy Siva, who is a member of parliament for the past two decades, told NDTV: “Around 1:00 pm, when Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar was responding to the discussion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister , Prahlad Joshi, got up and proposed to extend the Usually the house is enlarged after taking the consensus of the house, but the vice president who presided over the house that day without even looking at us next to us, just looking at the treasure banks, expanded the house despite members of 12 opposition parties on their feet calling for a postponement. This is a clear violation of Rajya Sabha Rule 37 “.
Addressing the media after the proceedings, Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said: “The proceedings were being carried out peacefully. The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs wanted the chamber to be expanded until the passage of the bills. This is a normal practice in parliament. Sense of The house is not assembled by majority and minority. After this, the opposition parties came to the well of the house and started the uproar. “
In Rajya Sabha footage accessed by NDTV at around 1.03pm, opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that “the opposition parties say that the time should not be extended today and tomorrow the minister can reply …”
Citing this, the opposition parties affirm that there was no consensus in the chamber to extend the process and the presidency, in an unprecedented way, expanded the house without taking the opposition into consideration.
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