New Delhi: Both the Houses of Parliament remained non-functional on Thursday and were adjourned for the day following protests from the Opposition MPs over the violence in Sambhal and Adani issue. However, before adjournment, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan took oaths as new members in the Lok Sabha. The Lower House also allowed the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the Waqf (Amendment) Bill time till the end of Budget session 2025 to present its report.
Chaos prevailed on the third day too as the Opposition members entered the Well of the Lok Sabha, raising slogans demanding action against the perpetrators of the violence in Sambhal during a court-ordered survey of a mosque. They also demanded discussion on the Adani issue.
Speaker Om Birla urged members to let the House function and not raise issues that are not relevant topics for Lok Sabha.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju flayed the protests and said that the Opposition members were protesting despite the government agreeing to their demands for extension of the tenure of the joint committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill and debate in the House on certain issues.
However, as the protests by the Opposition MPs continued, TDP member Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the Chair, adjourned the proceedings for the day.
In Rajya Sabha too, proceedings were washed out for the third consecutive day after uproar by the Opposition MPs over the Adani issue and violence in Manipur and Sambhal. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar’s appeals that “parliamentary disruption was not a remedy but a malady that weakened the foundation of India’s democracy” went unheeded as the Opposition members continued to protest.
The proceedings of the Upper House were adjourned within minutes after it met at noon, following the first adjournment shortly after 11 am in the day.
Recalling that Wednesday marked a historic milestone -- the beginning of the final quarter-century before India’s Constitution turned 100 -- Dhankhar lamented that the House members missed the opportunity to engage in productive dialogue.
“This was a moment for our House of Elders, guided by the spirit of nationalism, to send a powerful message of hope to 1.4 billion Indians, reaffirming our commitment to their dreams and journey towards Viksit Bharat at 2047,” he said while adding, “Yet, with deep regret, I must say we missed this historic opportunity. Where there should have been productive dialogue echoing the collective aspirations of our nation, we fell short of our people’s expectations.”
