In ‘selective blocking’, KC Tyagi gets to speak but Arun Jaitley doesn’t in Rajya Sabha

“We cannot allow the House to be conducted in such a way that the government is not allowed to speak. Such selective blocking cannot go on,” Jaitley said. Deputy chairman P J Kurien supported him. “This House is the property of everyone, selective blocking is not acceptable.”

Aggressive Congress members had disrupted proceedings from the very start with members from Andhra Pradesh Ramachandra Rao and J D Seelam holding up placards demanding special status for AP. They continued to stand even as Azad rose to speak, to the irritation of Kurien. Azad nonchalantly said: “They used to stand even when we were in government,” before Rao finally relented and sat down.

Azad clarified that contrary to media reports, “there has been no effort by the government to hold a meeting with the Congress to break the present deadlock. There was one phone call from the minister for parliamentary affairs about the suspension of members, nothing more. There was no mention of the issues that have rocked Parliament these last three weeks.”

Congress members in both Houses have disrupted proceedings demanding the resignation of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for helping fallen IPL boss Lalit Modi and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan over the Vyapam scam.

Azad also raised the issue of keeping the Nagaland CM in the dark about the Naga peace accord and ministers targeting Congress leaders. Jaitley intervened and said the government had made many attempts to resolve the impasse. “Each time Congress clearly told us that it was the decision of the party leadership not to let the House function. As for the Naga peace accord, Congress CMs in the Northeast had welcomed the accord on Twitter but had to retract under pressure from the leadership,” he said.

This was contested in the afternoon by Anand Sharma, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who said even Parliament was kept in the dark about the agreement. He said it was a breach of privilege of the House which was the council of states. He said such was the secrecy that even the home ministry was not told about the deal.

K C Tyagi raised the issue of appointment of governors without consultations with state governments concerned. He said his party had no problem with the choice of the person appointed Bihar governor, but objected to the fact that the government had violated “well-respected conventions” in consulting the state before the appointment. He was supported by party leader Sharad Yadav and the SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav.

“It is of course the prerogative of the central government… But the manner in which the government has gone about doing it has raised concerns in the state about the intentions of the government,” Sharad Yadav said.