RS adjourned over row on DMK MPs’ T-shirts, fails to transact business
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha failed to transact any significant business on Thursday and was adjourned for the day after witnessing three adjournments over a row on some DMK members wearing T-shirts with slogans written on them.
This is the first day during the second part of the Budget Session when the House was adjourned without transacting any business except for the laying of papers.
Soon after the House met in the morning, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar allowed the laying of papers and some reports of the parliamentary standing committees, after which he adjourned the House for about an hour.
He said he wanted to meet leaders of political parties over what he witnessed in the House. Without sharing details of what he witnessed, Dhankhar adjourned the proceedings till noon.
“I will be calling a meeting of floor leaders in my chambers at 11.30 am today. I would share with the members what I have seen in the House a while ago,” he said soon after listed papers were laid on the floor of the House.
While the chairman did not cite any reason for the adjournment, the issue of DMK members wearing T-shirts with slogans written on them was objected to by the chairman.
Some of the DMK MPs attended the House proceedings wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Delimitation - Tamil Nadu will fight, Tamil Nadu will win”, which was objected to by the Chair.
Some MPs also donned stoles that played upon Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s remarks on DMK MPs’ protest in Lok Sabha against the three-language formula of National Education Policy (NEP), and had the word “uncivilised” written on it, with the first two alphabets ‘U’ and ‘N’ having been crossed.
As the deadlock over the issue continued, when the House reassembled at noon, Deputy Chairman Harivansh announced that the proceedings had been adjourned again for another 15 minutes.
At 12.15 pm, he again came amid the deadlock and announced that the House stood adjourned till 2 pm.
As soon as it reconvened at 2 pm, the deputy chairman announced that the House stood adjourned for the day.
During the meeting with floor leaders of various parties, the chairman sought their cooperation and urged the DMK members not to wear T-shirts that were against the rules. However, the DMK members were unrelenting and did not budge.
During the meeting, floor leaders of various parties assured the chairman that they were in favour of smooth functioning of the House.
The DMK MPs, however, said the government had failed to explain the issue of delimitation, which might lead to the representation of the southern states going down.
