Noisy scenes in RS over private member's bill

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20. The Rajya Sabha today witnessed noisy scenes and was adjourned for five minutes over whether to continue or not with the discussion on a private member's resolution on Constitution review moved in the winter session.

There were noisy scenes soon after the House met after lunch to discuss the resolution of Mr. Ramdas Agarwal (BJP) and an amendment moved by Mr. Eduardo Faleiro (Congress-I).

The Chair suggested to both the Congress(I) and the BJP to withdraw their participants to enable faster completion of the discussion. While the Congress(I) members agreed, treasury benches were for discussion saying, ``It is an important subject.''

Mohd. Salim (CPI-M), who was in the Chair, ruled that since the issue had already consumed two-and-a-half hours on December 10, it should be completed at the earliest to enable other private members' business to be taken up for discussion.

The BJP benches, led by Mr. S.S. Ahluwalia and Mr. Narendra Mohan, said all members listed to participate in the debate should be allowed to speak.

Mr. Vayalar Ravi (Congress-I) said since the objective of the mover of the resolution had been achieved by setting up of the review commission, no purpose would be served by further discussing the resolution.

With the Opposition asking for taking the sense of the House on whether to continue the discussion and the treasury benches saying this would set a bad precedent, the Chair adjourned the House for five minutes.

When the House re-assembled after five minutes, the Congress(I) chief whip, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, quoting rules asked for taking the sense of the House on the subject since there were such precedents. However, the treasury benches wanted to know the ruling of the Chair since the House was adjourned briefly.

The Chair ruled that members from smaller parties would be allowed to speak and thereafter the sense of the House would be taken on whether to continue with the discussion or not.

Participating in the discussion, Mr. Ka. Ra. Subbian (DMK) said the NDA manifesto had clearly stated that a committee would set up to review the constitution. Stating the review should fulfil the principle of federal spirit, he said Article 356 empowering the Centre to dismiss elected governments in States should be deleted.

Mr. R.S. Gavai (RPI) said there was a ``hidden agenda'' behind the move.

- PTI

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