Winter Session: Oppn tweaks strategy, won't fall for govt's 'bait'

After two days of acrimonious exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches in both Houses of Parliament and repeated adjournment of proceedings, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may finally witness a semblance of smooth functioning on the third day of the winter session.

Leaders of various Opposition parties have decided that they would continue in their attempts to corner the government on the floor of Parliament instead of staging protests inside both Houses that, in their view, will only give the Centre a chance to avoid being asked uncomfortable questions.

The change of stance of the Opposition comes despite the Centre’s brusque refusal to grant the Opposition’s wish for a debate on the Bill that, on November 29, repealed the three farm laws and the unprecedented suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members from five Opposition parties for the entire duration of the current session for disrupting proceedings of the last session.

The Opposition parties strongly protested against the suspension of their MPs during proceedings, on November 30, but Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu made it clear that he would not revoke the suspension.

Naidu likened the disruptions caused by the suspended MPs, on August 11, during proceedings of the last session, to “sacrilege”. The RS chairman said that the decision to suspend the members – six MPs from the Congress, two each from the Shiv Sena and the Trinamool and one each from the CPI and CPM – was “not of the government, it was of the House”.

Also read: Why Trinamool rebuffing Congress unity overtures looks good for BJP

While Naidu said the suspended MPs had “not expressed any remorse” for their actions, the government later claimed that the suspension can be revoked if the MPs “tender an apology”.

Opposition leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, have ruled out issuing an apology and insisted that their suspended colleagues had done nothing wrong. Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool said in the Rajya Sabha that if an apology must be tendered to the House, it is the “80 MPs from the Treasury” who must apologise and not those from the Opposition.

The Congress-led bloc, however, made another attempt to reason with Naidu, claiming that the suspension was also in violation of the Rules of Procedure of the Rajya Sabha as MPs cannot be suspended in the current session for an action that was allegedly committed in the previous one.

However, Naidu refused to budge.

After discussions with leaders of various Opposition parties and the suspended MPs, Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, wrote to Naidu pointing out “anomalies in the motion brought by the minister (of parliamentary affairs) for the suspension, which is in violation of Rule 256 (1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States”.

Kharge said Naidu was wrong in saying that motion to suspend the MPs was passed by the House as “the entire Opposition was opposed to the motion” and claimed that the “members were denied any opportunity to present their case”.

While Naidu had claimed that the suspension of MPs for something they purportedly did in the previous session was not in violation of the Rules, Kharge pointed out in his letter that “for the functioning of the House, each session is summoned by the President under Article 85 (1) of the Constitution… upon the completion of the sittings for that session, the House is adjourned sine die and subsequently prorogued as per the provisions of Article 85 (2) (a) of the Constitution.”

Kharge said the monsoon session of the Rajya Sabha had concluded on August 11 and was prorogued by the President on August 31.

Also read: Rescinding of farm laws means, for Modi and Co. nothing matters but power

The LoP argued that “if the House had only been adjourned and then reconvened without any prorogation, the argument of continuity (as put forth by Naidu) would merit justification”.

Congress sources said that they had not received any reply from the Rajya Sabha chairman’s office after Kharge’s last letter but leaders of 15 Opposition parties, including the DMK, RJD, Shiv Sena, NCP, CPM, CPI, TRS and others, were in agreement that dragging the issue further through unrelenting protests in the Upper House would not help the Opposition’s cause of cornering the Centre.

It was decided that while the suspended MPs would stage protests in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue inside the Parliament complex every day from 10 am to 6 pm for the remainder of the winter session, while their colleagues would register a token protest inside the House every day but then return to normal proceedings.

“Our ultimate goal has to be that the Centre is forced to respond to questions it is evading. For this to happen, both Houses need to function. If we protest or walk out every day, the government will have a free pass to transact its legislative business without any debate and take the moral high ground claiming they wanted a discussion but were constrained by the Opposition’s disruptions. We don’t want that to happen; we want the Centre to answer uncomfortable questions on the issue of farmers, rising prices, inflation, Chinese incursions, etc,” said a senior Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress.

The Opposition also believes that by limiting its protests inside the House, it would be able to expose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of wanting detailed discussions with the cooperation of all parties.

“The PM had said on the first day of the session that the government is prepared to discuss all issues. The lie was exposed the same day when they did not allow a discussion on the Bill to repeal the farm laws,” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha told The Federal.

Chowdhury added, “We want to hold the PM and the government to account on the assurance of a discussion on all issues but we know that this government will find excuses to run away. This was clear in the Lok Sabha on Monday (November 29) when, even though only MPs from the TRS were protesting in the Well of the House, the proceedings were adjourned.

When the (Lok Sabha) Speaker called all parties to discuss ways of ending the logjam at 2 pm, we told him we want a debate but the House was adjourned again minutes after proceedings began at 3 pm. This shows the government is running away from discussion but blaming Opposition for stalling proceedings.”

The Opposition’s new strategy may also be viewed as a balancing act within its ranks following the different approach that Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has decided to take in Parliament as opposed to a bloc of 15 other parties, led by the Congress. The chinks in Opposition unity had been visible on the first two days of the winter session with the Trinamool deciding the stay away from meetings of 15 other Opposition parties that were chaired by Kharge, in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.

On the second day of the winter session, the difference in approach between the Congress-led bloc and the Trinamool was starker as the latter refused to join the principal Opposition party and its co-travellers in the walk-outs they staged in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Though the Trinamool MPs eventually did walk out of the proceedings, they did so only after registering their protest against the government. The Trinamool, say party sources, wished to make it clear that while its grievances with the government, or the manner in which Parliament was functioning, may be the same as those of the Congress-led bloc, it wishes to stand on its own and not be banded together in the bloc being steered by the Grand Old Party.