The situation in the House was so unruly that the speech of the Leader of the House, CM Bhajan Lal Sharma was also marred by disruptions by the opposition.
Photo: Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (Official Website)
The closing day of the Monsoon session of the Rajasthan Assembly was marred by sloganeering and walkout by the Opposition Congress in protest against what they alleged as breach of privacy by installing hidden cameras in their houses.
The ruckus prevailed in the House right from the beginning of sitting of the day as the Opposition members who have been agitated over the issue since Tuesday, came into the assembly prepared for the protest.
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The situation in the House was so unruly that the speech of the Leader of the House, CM Bhajan Lal Sharma was also marred by disruptions by the opposition.
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As soon as Speaker Vasudev Devnani called for the Question Hour, LoP Tika Ram Jully rose to urge the Chair to allow him to raise the issue of the alleged extra cameras installed in the House to keep tabs on the Opposition Benches.
The Speaker said he would take call on his demand after the Question Hour, right now the opposition should allow the House to discharge business smoothly.
The LoP said the opposition would cooperate fully, but, the Chair should give the ruling right now, allot time to us to make our point later after Question Hour.
Speaker Devnani said “I shall do so after the Question Hour, for now this is my ruling”. This triggered trouble as all Opposition members trooped in well raising slogans. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel and Government Chief Whip Jogeshwar Garg urged the Opposition to abide by the Speaker’s ruling and allow the House to run smoothly.
LoP Jully insisted on demand for immediate ruling from the Chair saying “cameras were already there in the House to telecast live the proceeding then why these extra cameras installed focused on us, who has given the permission for these, control of those are in the Speaker’s rest – room in his chamber. He said this is a breach of the right to privacy of the Opposition members.
Speaker Devnani said that the cameras were always there from the very beginning. This continued, opposition was dissatisfied, they stayed in the well raising slogans and the Chairs conducted Question Hour amid the din for almost 20 minutes and there-after the protesting members staged a walkout.
Most of them returned-in after some time, however sat quietly in their seats until the end of the Question Hour. As the Speaker rose to take up zero hour business, both the LoP and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister rose to Speak against each other while Jully was to press up on ruling on his issue, the Minister was to deplore the opposition for creating unruly scenes in the House.
The speaker allowed Minister Patel to speak to the anguish of the opposition members who again mobbed in the well. In his speech Minister Patel made pot shots at the LoP triggering heated exchanges between the members of both sides. On a couple of occasions many of the treasury and opposition have faced off in the well. Sensing the mood of members, Speaker Devnani adjourned the House around 12:05hrs until 01:00pm.
On re-assembly, the situation remained unchanged and the Speaker ordered another adjournment within a few minutes until 02:00pm.
On the second re-assembly at 02:00, the Speaker Devnani began with zero hour business amid the ruckus in the House, and then took up the scheduled legislative business amid loud slogans in the well.
Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma was also in the House. Upset over the conduct of the opposition members, Sharma intervened to deplore persistent disruptions caused by the opposition in the House.
He said that the Congress members are not at all bothered to have concerns about people’s issues and problems, they do come to show gimmicks, waste the precious time of the House that is meant to serve the cause of the people. The people of Rajasthan would not forgive them for their sins.
The Congress has never shown any concern or solidarity to people in distress. They have always indulged in appeasement and corruption.
The acrimony was so intense that slogan and ruckus by the Congress members marred even leader of the House Sharma. Reacting to the disruptions the CM Sharma said “they cannot throttle my voice, they have ignored people’s interests for their own and wasting time of the House for self interest”.
Later the House debated and passed separately the Rajasthan Ground Water (Conservation and Management) Authority Bill -2024 and the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Amendment and Validation) Bill – 2025 by the voice vote, in the absence of opposition.
The principal objective of ground water law is to establish an authority, as a body to administer and regulate the activities related to optimum exploitation and conservation of ground water. The second Bill is being legislated to amend further the Land Revenue Law of 1956 and validate appropriate provisions.
Both Bills were due to be passed in the last budget session in January – March earlier this year, but the House had referred these to the select committee for further reforms and amendments.
As the last agenda of the session, the House adopted a resolution to greet and express gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his historic decision of effecting new generation GST reforms in the larger interest of the nation. Later, the House was adjourned sine die.
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