The Lok Sabha did not see much business on Wednesday with the house being adjourned twice, as opposition as well as lawmakers from the treasury benches disrupted proceedings. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla did not preside over the house as he was upset about Opposition MPs throwing papers in the well and drowning union home minister Amit Shah’s attempts to initiate discussion on the bill to replace the Delhi ordinance.
Senior Opposition leaders as well as BJP sources said that Birla was upset over the conduct in the House on Tuesday, and has refused to sit on the Chair. He did not preside over the proceedings after the adjournment following the introduction of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday, and was missing on Wednesday as well. On Tuesday, while the Bill was introduced in the House on Tuesday, Opposition MPs halted their protests to take part in the introductory debate. But when Shah rose to speak the House saw an uproar. Opposition MPs tore papers, drowned Shah’s address in the din, and also tried to push in placards into camera frames when the House proceedings were recorded. The House was soon adjourned.
The BJP had issued three-line whips to its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the House on Tuesday as well as on Wednesday, and party sources had said that the Bill will be up for discussion on Wednesday. However, when the House sat at 2pm after the first adjournment, it was the BJP MPs who rose.
The contentious legislation saw several Opposition MPs opposing it in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, with Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury saying that the Bill has been bought on the “graveyard of cooperative federalism”. Several MPs contended that the Bill is in violation of the Supreme Court order of May 11, which held that the Delhi government has legislative and executive powers over the administration of services except for public order, police and land.
Before bringing the Bill to the Parliament, the government tweaked it, dropping Section 3A of the ordinance, which restricted the state assembly from enacting any law on ‘services’.
Opposition parties were, however, surprised by the support for the Bill from the Biju Janata Dal when MP Pinaki Mishra hailed the government in his speech. BJD said that the party decided to support the government on the Bill after party president and CM Naveen Patnaik received a call from one of the top leaders of the BJP on Tuesday morning. “We hold our legislative party meetings on Tuesdays, and we received a call from the president’s office on the matter; the BJP has sought out support on the Delhi Bill as well as the Manipur issue,” the BJD MP said. On the Manipur issue, the lawmaker said that the BJD will continue with its “equidistance”.