Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday issued a warning to Opposition members, threatening them with "serious action" and "severe consequences" for allegedly showing disrespect to the President's message and disrupting the House repeatedly.
Tensions ran high when the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was laid, with Opposition benches erupting in loud protests. In spite of repeated requests for decorum, some Opposition members moved into the well of the House, shouting slogans in disregard of the chairman's orders.
The commotion did not abate even after Vice President and Chairman of the House Dhankhar read out the message of the President. Speaking to the agitating members, he sternly stated, "Don't show disrespect to the President of India."
Dhankhar then asked Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Mallikarjun Kharge to urge protesting members to resume their seats. But since the commotion did not stop, he admonished sternly:
"You have lingered long enough. Do you want me to take the final step? Sit down. You are compelling me to take drastic action. The price will be too steep."
The House was adjourned for 10 minutes, and when it reconvened, tempers ran high once again in a heated exchange between the government and Opposition on the JPC report.
A few Opposition MPs claimed that portions of their dissent notes were deleted from the report—a charge strongly denied by the government.
Bringing it up in the House, LoP Mallikarjun Kharge criticized the claimed deletion, saying, "Deleting dissent notes from proceedings is condemnable and unconstitutional."
However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju quickly brushed off the charge, saying that no dissent notes were deleted.
"All JPC meetings were held in an open and fair manner. These are frivolous charges—there was no breach of any regulation. Do not mislead the House," Rijiju retorted.
Read also| Delhi Poll Analysis: Kejriwal Meets Punjab CM, MLAs, Emphasizes AAP Unity
