Parliament Disrupted Over Adani, Soros

New Delhi: The Parliament proceedings were disrupted again on Tuesday as the face-off between the government and the Opposition continued over Soros and Adani issues.

In Lok Sabha, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the government was not allowing the House to function as a strategy because it is afraid of discussing the Adani issue. Lok Sabha met for a total of around 25 minutes on Tuesday as proceedings were hit by adjournments. Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal managed to introduce the Merchant Shipping Bill, of 2024.

In the morning, the Lok Sabha was adjourned within five minutes even after Speaker Om Birla appealed that Question Hour, the first hour of the daily business of the House, is very important and everyone should try and ensure it is held smoothly. He said the House has its respect, high standard and dignity, and no one should try to lower these.

As the House re-assembled in the afternoon, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju accused the Congress and its leadership of colluding with US billionaire George Soros and anti-India forces, plunging the Lok Sabha into chaos and leading to its adjournment for the day.

Rijiju also hit out at Congress leaders for attacking the dignity of Parliament by coming to the House by wearing masks and jackets with caricatures. Opposition members trooped into the Well as Rijiju made the remarks.

Noisy protests also erupted in the Rajya Sabha as the treasury and Opposition benches traded charges and raised slogans over Congress-George Soros “links” and Adani issues, leading to the adjournment of the House in the afternoon.

As soon as the House met at 12 noon after the first adjournment, Leader of the House J.P. Nadda raised the issue of alleged links between the Congress leadership and billionaire investor Soros, claiming that they were conniving to destabilise the country. This triggered uproar with Opposition members raising slogans against the BJP and the treasury benches demanding answers from the Congress.

The Congress’ deputy leader of the house Pramod Tiwari rejected Nadda’s allegations and raised the Adani issue. As stated by a US attorney, the Adani Group paid `23,000 crore as bribes, he said.

Nadda alleged that media portal Organised Crime Corruption and Reporting Project (OCCRP) is an international body that works viciously to destabilise the governments in several countries and

hurt their sovereignty. “We all know that the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha (Rahul Gandhi) has raised (in the House) whatever the OCCRP has reported and (thereby) became a tool of the external forces to cause instability here,” Nadda charged.

Similarly, the Forum of Democratic Leader of Asia Pacific (FDL-AP), which is co-chaired by the senior-most leadership of the Congress, not only raises questions over the sovereignty of the country, but also considers Jammu and Kashmir as a separate state, he said.

Without naming Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who was present in the House, Nadda questioned her role as the “co-chair of an organisation funded by Soros” in destabilising the country.

Amid the sloganeering from both sides, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar allowed DMK member Tiruchi Siva to speak. Siva said Rule 238 (2) restrains a member from making a personal charge against another member and demanded that Nadda’s remarks against Leader of the Opposition in

Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi be expunged.

Earlier in Lok Sabha, BJP member Dilip Saikia, who was on the chair allowed Sonowal to introduce the Merchant Shipping Bill, that empowers the central government to take charge and detain vessels within India or in coastal waters as a vessel without nationality, after responding to the objections raised by Congress member Manish Tewari and Trinamul Congress member Saugata Ray.

Meanwhile, several Opposition MPs on Tuesday also demonstrated over the Adani issue in Parliament premises, carrying black ‘jholas’ (bags) with caricatures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani printed on it and ‘Modi Adani Bhai Bhai’ written on the obverse side.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, MPs from the Congress, DMK, JMM, Left, among others, protested in front of the Makar Dwar steps. They raised slogans against alleged collusion between Modi and Adani and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the matter. Earlier, Gandhi chaired a meeting of Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha to take stock of the party’s stance on various issues and the way forward in Parliament.