Venkaiah Naidu smells 'conspiracy' behind ruckus in Rajya Sabha

Venkaiah Naidu

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said he sees a "conspiracy" in opposition members agitating and trying to stall the proceedings of upper House.

Naidu's remarks came soon after the House reassembled at 2 p.m after two adjournments and he allowed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Amit Shah to continue with his speech which he was not able to complete on Tuesday due to ruckus by the opposition members.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy raised a point of order and said as per the rules of conduct of the upper House, a member cannot speak twice on the same issue if he fails to complete his speech in the first instance.

But his point of order was rejected by the Chairman.

Naidu said he had given Shah permission to complete his speech and asked him to continue.

As the point of order was rejected, the TMC members trooped near the Chairman's podium and started raising slogans, asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come in the House and make a statement on the issue.

Naidu urged the TMC members to go back to their seats and allow Shah to continue.

"It seems a conspiracy ... not letting the House function by creating controversy... You are doing something which is not acceptable in parliamentary system," Naidu said.

But the TMC members did not relent.

As they continued with their protest and sloganeering, Naidu appealed Roy to ask his party members to go back to their seats.

"You create disorder and you raise point of order... There must be some patience to hear the reply," he said.

As Naidu's continuous appeal was not heeded by the agitating TMC members, he said: "This seems to be a system that you spoke, you had your say and now come and disturb the proceedings. You don't want to hear the reply."

As the TMC members continued with their protest and did not even allow Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to speak, Nadu adjourned the House for the day.

"As some of the members are not willing to hear the reply of Home Minister and as they are not ready to relent, I am adjourning the House for the day," Naidu said before adjourning the House.

Earlier, the Congress members were on their feet to register their protest against Shah's remarks made on Tuesday.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma asked Chairman Naidu to expunge Shah's comments wherein he said "you (Congress) did not have the courage, but we have it to implement the NRC".

Naidu said that he would look into it and expunge any remarks that were found uncalled for.

As the Congress members continued with their protest, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon minutes after it met for the day.

The BJP and the TMC are at loggerheads over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

Shah had claimed that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had the courage to do what the Congress lacked on identifying foreigners.