No dharnas, fast allowed in Parliament premises: Rajya Sabha Secretariat

Opposition on Friday found fault with a direction from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat against holding protests in Parliament House complex, a day after objecting to a new booklet in which several words were declared unparliamentary.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat issued a direction in the Bulletin, "Members cannot use the precincts of the Parliament House for any demonstration, dharna, strike, fast, or for the purpose of performing any religious ceremony." The Secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been re-issuing the direction for years.

Also Read — Opposition flays 'gag order' on some terms used in Parliament

The controversy erupted after Congress General Secretary (Communications) and senior MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "Vishguru's latest salvo — D(h)arna Mana Hai!"

Senior Congress MP Manish Tewari joined in and asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, "why are the Presiding officers setting the stage for confrontation with the Members ? First the word war and now this. It is indeed unfortunate."

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said in a tweet, "why not just remove Gandhi-ji’s statue from the premises? And erase Article 19 (1) a of the constitution."

She said in another tweet referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducting a puja at the time of unveiling the national emblem on the new Parliament Building that is being constructed, "between Honourable MP Varanasi performed a religious ceremony on top of the new Parliament Building just four days ago."

Also Read — No words banned, but members should maintain decorum: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said it was a “routine matter” and such circulars are issued before every Session. He asked MPs and parties not to use routine parliamentary information for creating news.

Parliament sources said this is not a new direction and it has been reissued from time to time.

Though the direction has been issued earlier, Opposition MPs had staged protests and marches inside Parliament House complex in the past.

Pro-government supporters, meanwhile, shared the same direction issued in Parliament bulletins when the Congress-led UPA was in power.

The latest round of confrontation came after Lok Sabha Secretariat published a new booklet ‘Unparliamentary Expressions’, which the Opposition alleged contained several words like ‘Jumlajeevi’, ‘Covid Spreader’ and ‘Snoopgate’ among others that described the “reality” of the Narendra Modi government.