Parliament Session 2024 Live Updates: Lok Sabha adjourned till Monday amid uproar over oppn demanding discussion on NEET issue - The Times of India (2024)

Amid aggressive protests Chhattisgarh MP from Congress Phulo Devi Netam collapsed while protesting in Rajya Sabha; she has been rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju rushed to the spot as Netam was taken out of the House post adjournment on a stretcher.

Cong President & LoP Rajya Sabha Shri Mallikarjun Kharge to visit Smt Phulo Devi Netam at 3.30 PM, today at RML Hospital.

House witnessed uproarious scenes as the opposition launched a very aggressive attack on the BJP-led NDA on NEET paper leaks and irregularities.

As the chair refused to relent to their demand for suspension of business, the entire opposition led by the leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge trooped into the well.

Chairman Rajya Sabha described the day to go down in history as a stain on Parliamentary decorum.

Dhankhar said never before has LOP come into well. As opposition continued to raise slogans demanding resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, marsalls lined up the well as tempers rose on both sides.

JP Nadda's first speech as leader House was interrupted by opposition as they reached his desk loudly questioning him from the well.

Nadda accused Congress of first agreeing to discussion on the President's address in the Business Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday and then giving notices for suspension of business on Friday morning.

Nadda said that 21 hours to debate the President's address was unprecedented and an opportunity for opposition to discuss NEET as much as they wanted.

However, the opposition continued to protest before the House adjourned.

"On behalf of the government, we have made it clear that we will give detailed information on whatever issue is raised," said Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju.

"We assure the members once again that the Government is always ready for discussion. But by halting the proceedings of the House, the tendency adopted by Congress party - of not letting the House function - is not right...I condemn this. I appeal that those should not happen again," he told news agency ANI.

Members in the Upper House rushed into the well of the house, evoking reprimand from chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Opposition parties led by Congress gave 22 notices to the Rajya Sabha chairman seeking suspension of business to discuss paper leaks and irregularities in NEET-UG and UGC NET and the failure of NTA.

Dhankar refused to concede to the demand, citing that the discussion on the President's address would allow members to raise any issue they wish to therefore suspension of business was not required.

After the opposition disagreed and restored to contact sloganeering, the House was adjourned till 12pm.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla refused to take up the adjournment motion from the opposition before the discussion on the President's address. On appeal from the opposition to discuss the NEET issue, Birla asked the leader of the opposition Raul Gandhi to follow parliamentary tradition and assured that the mics of opposition leaders will not be switched off and they are free to raise any issue while discussing the presidential address.

After the opposition MPs refused to allow the House to function raising slogans, the Speaker adjourned the House till 12 pm.

"Yesterday, all the leaders of the opposition parties had a meeting and it was unanimous that today, we want a discussion on the NEET issue...There should be a discussion on NEET here in the House," said Rahul Gandhi.

"I request the Prime Minister that this is an issue of the youth and it should be discussed properly and it should be a respectful discussion. We will do it respectfully. You should also join the discussion, you should also participate because this is a matter of the youth. A message should go from the Parliament that the Indian government and the opposition are talking about the students together," he added

BJP on Thursday attacked Congress for objecting to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s condemnation of the Emergency, claiming that this shows the opposition party’s intentions are not right and its invocation of the Constitution is merely a smokescreen.

BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress begins squirming at the mention of the Emergency, which was imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.

Referring to the Emergency as “the sin of the murder of democracy”, he asked, “Why should not this black chapter in the Indian democracy be discussed.” He noted that Congress never apologised for imposing the Emergency.

Taking a swipe at the Congress’s present allies like Akhilesh Yadav, M K Stalin and Tejashwi Yadav, he said they should remember the excesses of Emergency.
President Droupadi Murmu also condemned the Emergency in her address to a joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday.

Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday told Speaker Om Birla that the Chair’s reference to Emergency was “political” and “avoidable”, a day after Birla ended his acceptance speech on election to the top Lok Sabha post with a detailed condemnation of the 1975 measure. Congress also termed the controversial reference as “travesty of parliamentary traditions”.

Rahul is said to have told the Speaker that the govt could have made such a reference, but it was not expected from the Speaker. Venugopal and Gogoi also mentioned the same.

After being declared LoP, Rahul led a delegation of INDIA bloc MPs for a courtesy call on Birla, which included Dimple Yadav, Kanimozhi, Misa Bharti, Supriya Sule, N K Premachandran, E T Mohd Basheer, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Dharmendra Yadav, Kalyan Banerjee, among others.

Venugopal also shot off a letter to Birla lodging Congress’s protest over Wednesday’s development. “I, on behalf of the Indian National Congress, express our profound concern and anguish over this travesty of parliamentary traditions,” Venugopal told Birla.

PM Narendra Modi on Thursday said the President’s speech had presented a roadmap of progress and good governance and also cited major challenges to be overcome collectively to ensure qualitative changes in people’s lives.

“Rashtrapati ji’s address to both Houses of Parliament was comprehensive. It covered the strides India has been making and also the potential that lies ahead. Her address also mentioned some of the major challenges we have to collectively overcome to ensure a qualitative change in the lives of our citizens,” Modi said in a post on X soon after President Droupadi Murmu concluded her address to the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
Home minister Amit Shah hailed the President’s speech for her mention that the 2024 Lok Sabha election was an election of faith in policy, intention, integrity and rules.

“President Droupadi Murmu ji in her speech said how for decades there was low voter turnout in Kashmir due to bandhs and strikes, but this time the Valley gave a befitting reply to anti-national forces by breaking voting records of many decades,” he said.

Amid the controversy surrounding cancellation of exams and leak of the NEET question paper, President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday sought to assure the country and said the govt was working towards major reforms in exam-related bodies and all aspects of the process.

“Regarding recent instances of paper leak in some examinations, my govt is committed to a fair investigation and ensuring strict punishment to the culprits. Even earlier, we have witnessed many instances of paper leaks in different states. It is important that we rise above party politics and undertake concrete measures nation wide,” the President said amid opposition MPs shouting “NEET-NEET”.

The mention of NEET came amid indications that the opposition may dial up the pressure on the govt in Parlia ment on Friday through an adjournment motion to seek an immediate discussion by suspending the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address.

Govt has said it was not running away from a discussion but whether it would agree to a full-scale debate on the exam controversy immediately, by allowing it to be raised during the debate on the motion of thanks, remains to be seen. The address also gave a strong vote of confidence for EVMs, on which the opposition repeatedly raised doubts during the poll campaign. “We must realise that hurting the faith of people in democratic institutions and the poll process is like cutting the very branch on which we all are sitting,” Murmu said.

Stating that PM Narendra Modi is in a “perpetual state of denial”, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the President’s address to the joint session whitewashed the key issues facing the country because Modi is trying to pretend that nothing has happened after the electorate “rejected” him. Congress, along with the rest of the opposition, also punched holes over the govt’s claims including on the economy and women empowerment.

In a stinging criticism of the President’s address, Kharge said the speech was silent on paper leaks, backbreaking price rise, violence in Manipur, train accidents, terror attacks in J&K, and rising atrocities against SC/ST/ minorities in BJP-ruled states. “Modi is making a futile attempt to garner some applause by making the Honourable President read lies, which the people of India have rejected in the 2024 elections,” he said.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “The story that is being told about India becoming the fifth-largest economy... has it made our farmers prosperous? If we are the fifth-largest economy, then why are so many youths unemployed? Why is there a scheme like Agniveer? Why can't price rise be controlled?” He said growth of some individuals cannot enable national growth.

CPI (ML) MP Sudama Prasad said, “They should have talked about Manipur. Why are they making empty speeches on women empowerment? Women were paraded naked there (Manipur), people have been rendered homeless... women wrestlers have not yet received justice. This address was full of lies.”