From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha is heading into the last day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session on Friday, amid uncertainty over holding a debate on Manipur ethnic violence as both the government and the Opposition are yet to find a common ground on how to break the logjam.
The proceedings in the Upper House on Thursday initially indicated that both the sides were heading towards a compromise on the mode of debate but the ruling BJP and the Opposition slipped into a slanging match soon after.
With no forward movement, three Opposition MPs Tiruchi Siva, Elamaram Kareem and Binoy Viswam submitted notices under Rule 167 for a discussion as a midddle path under a motion on the Manipur issue. Opposition
In the House, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said the Opposition was willing to make sacrifices for the debate but insisted on the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the debate, asking whether he was God not to come to Parliament.
The motions submitted by the three MPs expressed “deep concern and anguish” at the “perpetual lawlessness” in Manipur and said it resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives, thousands injured and around one lakh people displaced, places of worship destroyed and unprecedented violence perpetrated against women “owing to the breakdown of constitutional machinery”.
Sources said the government was not agreeable with the choice of words like “breakdown of constitutional machinery”.
Amid sloganeering, Dhankhar called for the introduction of a bill that replaces Chief Justice of India with a Cabinet Minister in the select committee to choose Chief Election Commissioners and Election Commissioners, which prompted the Opposition to rush to the well of the House in protest of the Bill that seeks to exclude the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee.
