STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Relentless protest by the Opposition demanding a debate on SIR led to the adjournment of Lok Sabha proceedings for the day on Tuesday even as the government asserted that it was ready to discuss the issue in the House without assigning a timeline.
After two adjournments earlier in the day, the House met again at 2 pm amid sloganeering by the Opposition members.
Dilip Saikia who was presiding over the House, urged the Opposition to allow the House to function as the government was willing to discuss the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union territories.
He reminded the members that the SIR exercise has already been completed in Bihar and results are evident.
The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was listed for consideration and passage in Lok Sabha but could not be taken up due to disruption.
Earlier during the Zero Hour, which went on for around 10 minutes, various papers and standing committees’ reports were laid on the table of the House.
Members of Congress and some other Opposition parties protested and shouted slogans against the SIR of electoral rolls, an issue on which they have been demanding an immediate discussion.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told the protesting members that they should protect the decorum of the House and there are many members from different parties who should also be heard.
Disrupting the proceedings by members of a few parties is not right, and also anger of losing elections should not be shown in the House, the minister said and mentioned that even late BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also lost elections.
While taking a jibe at the Congress on recent electoral losses, Rijiju said they are losing the confidence of the people.
The government is ready to discuss issues, he asserted.
As the din continued, the proceedings were adjourned within 10 minutes till 2 pm.
Earlier, the proceedings were adjourned till 12 noon due to the protests.
Proceedings on the first day of the Winter Session on Monday had also been disrupted due to the opposition protests, leading to repeated adjournments.
Meanwhile, standoff between the government and the opposition over the demand for a debate on special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continued, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju refusing to give a timeline for the debate, even though he said the government was ready to have a discussion.
Opposition parties demanded that the discussion should be held on SIR by giving it priority over other business, while the Parliamentary Affairs Minister stressed that the debate on ‘Vande Mataram’ would be taken up first.
As the government refused to give preference to the debate on SIR, opposition MPs raised slogans in the Upper House and later staged a walkout.
Pressing for a discussion on SIR, leaders from Congress, TMC, DMK, AAP, SP and CPI(M) had met Rijiju on Tuesday. They had demanded that the government announce the time for a debate on electoral reforms on the floor of the House.
As the Rajya Sabha met at 2 pm after adjournment, Rijiju said a debate on ‘Vande Mataram’ has been listed in the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee, and would be taken up before the debate on “electoral reforms”.
“From the government side, we propose a discussion on further electoral reforms, which is related to the matter opposition parties have been demanding,” he said.
“My specific appeal is when the government is ready to take up the discussion, please do not put the condition that it has to take precedence over other matters. In the first BAC meeting, the government had proposed a discussion on the 150th anniversary of the Vande Mataram, that is already listed…” he said, adding that time for other matters would be decided in the next BAC meeting.
“Vande Mataram is a matter related to our freedom struggle. Matters related to electoral reforms are also extremely important. There may be many more issues that parties would like to raise in the House. However, considering that Opposition parties have united to raise one issue, the government is ready to take up a discussion but to have it before discussion on Vande Mataram may not be appropriate,” he said.