Declining Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar’s invitation to meet him on December 25, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is not in the capital, in a letter said that the mass suspension of MPs was “premeditated” and “weaponised” by the ruling party to sabotage Parliamentary practices.
Mr. Kharge was replying to a second letter written by Mr. Dhankhar on Saturday inviting him for a meeting on December 25 saying that “we need to move ahead”. In the letter Mr. Dhankhar said that the disorder was “deliberate and strategised”.
While agreeing with the Chairman on the need to move ahead, Mr. Kharge said that a discussion in his chamber won’t resolve the problem “if the government is not keen on running the House”.
Responding to Mr. Dhankhar’s allegations, Mr. Kharge said the suspensions were executed “without any application of mind”, pointing to the suspension of a DMK MP who was not even present in Parliament.
“You have also mentioned that disorder was deliberate and strategised and predetermined. I would like to submit that if anything, it is the mass suspension of the Opposition MPs from both Houses of Parliament that seems to be predetermined and premediated by the government,” Mr. Kharge remarked.
Mr. Kharge held Mr. Dhankhar, as the presiding officer, responsible for the government “escaping all accountability”. “It would be distressing when history judges the presiding officers harshly for Bills passed without debate and not seeking accountability from the government. It is disappointing that the Hon’ble Chairman feels effecting suspensions facilitated legislative business by passing Bills without discussion,” he wrote.
The Opposition, Mr. Kharge argued, had moved multiple notices seeking a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach. “I recognise it is well within your powers as Chairman to decide on these notices. However, it was regrettable that the Chair condoned the attitude of the Hon’ble Home Minister and the government who did not wish to make a statement on the floor of the House,” Mr. Kharge said. He pointed out that while Mr. Shah did not speak in the house he spoke to a TV channel on the subject while the Parliament was in session. Mr. Kharge wondered why “the Chair did not find that ‘sacrileging the temple of democracy.’”
