NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla dismissed as non-issue Congress’s protests over a circular issued by Rajya Sabha secretriat forbidding protests, dharnas and religious ceremonies, saying the caution has been a consistent practice for more than a decade.
Birla said the circular has been a routine affair and has been issued every year since it was first issued in 2009 when Congress-led UPA was in power. “This is a routine matter and such circulars are issued before every session,” he said, urging political parties not to use routine Parliamentary information for creating news.
As the opposition cried foul on Friday over a Rajya Sabha secretariat circular saying demonstrations, dharnas or religious ceremonies cannot be held in the precincts of the Parliament House complex, Birla called it a routine matter and that such notices have been issued for years and even when the Congress-led UPA was in government.
It was Jairam Ramesh, newly-appointed head of Congress’ media cell, who put out a tweet linking the circular to Modi government’s alleged intolerance. “Vishguru’s latest salvo — D(h)arna Mana Hai!” tweeted Jairam Ramesh.
However, the Rajya Sabha secretariat promptly rebutted the charge providing copies of similar circular issued during the UPA regime in 2013 and said such circulars are being issued for many years now.
BJP, already seething with anger over portryal of the regular practice of publication of a compilation of expressions deemed to be unparliamentary by different legislatures as an authoritarian measure, released screenshots of similar circulars issued in 2013 and 2014 by UPA.
Congress, however, found support from TMC and Left parties. “Demonstrations, dharnas, strikes, fast are part of legitimate Parliamentary tactics to register protest. However, can you please update me. Didn’t SOMEONE conduct a religious ceremony recently?” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien tweeted, referring to the unveiling of the national emblem atop the new building of Parliamen by PM Modi.
