New Delhi| Like the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha was repeatedly disrupted on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday and was eventually adjourned for the whole day as opposition members lashed out at various issues including fuel price hike and alleged espionage. Made a ruckus. The House was adjourned several times, before finally adjourning for the day, as the opposition did not heed the Speaker’s appeal to allow the House to function normally.
The chairman of Congress K. C. Venugopal, Manoj Jha of RJD, Binoy Vishwam of CPI and members of Congress, Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties raised slogans against the government. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi started introducing his new cabinet ministers, the opposition leaders started shouting slogans.
A similar view was witnessed in the Lok Sabha and it was finally adjourned for the day.
The opposition tried to corner the government on several issues including rising petrol and diesel prices and the alleged phone tapping case.
The lower house faced uproar from the opposition since 11 am.
Despite repeated attempts by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to continue with the functioning of the House, MPs from opposition parties gathered near the Speaker’s podium and continued to raise slogans against the government.
After two back-to-back adjournments following an uproar, the speaker finally adjourned the House for the day after new IT minister Ashwini Vaishnav gave a detailed statement on the phone tapping issue.
Vaishnav said, last night a very sensational story was published by a web portal. Many big allegations were made in this story. The press report came out a day before the monsoon session of Parliament. It can’t be a coincidence.
Noting that similar claims were made in the past regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp, he said, those reports had no factual basis and were refuted by all parties. The press report of 18 July also appears to be an attempt to malign Indian democracy and well-established institutions.