Farmers Movement Archive

Order in House must, says Rajya Sabha Dy Chair after quick passage of two farm bills

Breaking his silence for the first time after he supervised the quick passage of two farm bills last Sunday amid ruckus in the Upper House, its deputy chairman Harivansh said in order to have a division, order of the House is equally important as the demand for voting. “As per rules and practice, in order to have a division, two things are essential. Firstly there should be a demand for division and its is equally important that there should be order in the house,” he said in a statement. Harivansh’s clarification comes after a section of the media referred to a video footage to show how MPs were in their seats while demanding division or voting on the farm bills but their pleas were ignored. The Rajya Sabha officials also released an official transcript of the minute-by-minute account of the entire ruckus that showed how Opposition leaders such as Derek O’Brien, Tiruchi Siva, Jairam Ramesh repeatedly violated rules and rushed to the chair, came down to the Well, snatched papers and misbehaved with marshals. Also read: Farm stir set to intensify as Punjab CM plans sit-inThe transcript claims Trinamool’s O’Brien tore the rulebook, AAP’s Sanjay Singh invited others to join protest in the well, Congress MP Ripun Bora threw books from secretary general’s bookrack, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva snatched away face shield of a marshal while 3 MPs plucked microphone from chairman’s table. CPIM’s KK Ragesh tampered books, registers and TRS MP K Kesava Rao started recording the incidents in his camera till a marshal stopped him. In his clarification, Harivansh also pointed out that KK Ragesh’s resolution to refer the bill to select committee “was rejected by voice vote by the House at 1.07 pm as Sri Ragesh was in the Well of the House and not on his seat in the gallery at that point of time.” Also read: President Kovind gives his nod to all 3 farm bills, government notifies them“It is true that Tiruchi Shiva demanded a division on his amendment for reference of his bill to select committee from his seat at 1.10 p.m. You will see from the same video that around 1.09 p.m, one member was tearing the rule book and throwing it on me. Besides, I was surrounded by some hostile members, who were trying to snatch papers from me,” Harivansh stated.

Hindustan Times

28-09-2020

India