RS conducts Question Hour amid oppn sloganeering, protest over price hike

Rajya Sabha on Tuesday conducted Question Hour proceedings amid protests by opposition parties over various issues including price rise, and a brief adjournment.

Soon after the house met at 12 noon after the first adjournment in the morning session, Deputy Chairman Harivansh urged the protesting members from opposition parties such as Congress, TMC, DMK and AAP to return to their seats and allow the Question Hour to proceed.

As the members continued with their protest, he adjourned the house briefly for about 15 minutes till 12.20 PM.

Members of the AAP and the TMC had entered the Well and created an uproar, holding placards and raising slogans against the government.

Opposition MPs have been demanding an urgent discussion on issues like price rise and GST hike for the past many days, leading to disruptions in the House.

The opposition is demanding that the discussions be held under rule 267 (Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Rajya Sabha). Under this rule, the issue being raised is taken up by suspending the listed business of the day.

When the House met again at 12.20 pm, Harivansh asked about dozen opposition MPs, who were in the well, to return to their seats, but they continued protesting and raising slogans.

However, the deputy chairman decided to move ahead with the Question Hour.

The protesting MPs were raising slogans in various languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil and other regional languages.

"Modi ji jawab do"; "GST wapas lo", "Gujarat CM resign karo" were some of the slogans being raised by the Opposition members.

Derek O'Brien (TMC) wanted to ask a supplementary question, but Harivansh told him to first ask his party members to return to their seats.

In all, the upper House took up seven listed questions during the Question Hour.

Earlier, the several opposition party MPs, from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, staged a protest near the Mahatama Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex. Among other things, they were demanding revocation of suspension of Lok Sabha members as well as taking back GST on essential items.

The opposition parties also raised the issue of Gujarat hooch tragedy which reportedly took lives of 27 people. They sought compensation for the families of the deceased persons and resignation of the Gujarat chief minister.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi too participated in the dharna.