Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned sine die as scheduled on Thursday, a day after Opposition members tore up copies of bills and hurled them at the ruling alliance benches, underlining how the month-long monsoon session had widened the rift between the two sides.
The acrimony persisted on Thursday, with Opposition leaders staying away from the customary tea meeting hosted by the Lok Sabha Speaker at the conclusion of a session.
Several INDIA leaders continued to attack as “unconstitutional” and “bizarre” the bills introduced on Wednesday for the removal of jailed Prime Ministers and chief ministers, while government representatives went on claiming the controversy had exposed the
Opposition’s anti-corruption credentials.
The session saw very little debate. Barring two days of discussion each in the two Houses on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, the session that had started off with disruptions and adjournments ended on the same bilious note.
While Opposition members seized on the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar to disrupt proceedings, the government resisted their demand for a discussion on the subject and passed several key bills in the din without a proper debate. Twelve bills were passed and 14 introduced during the session.
The final blow came in the form of the government’s last-minute, surprise move of introducing three amendment bills providing for the removal of the Prime Minister, chief ministers and ministers if held in custody for 30 consecutive days, even without
a conviction.
These bills have, however, not been put up for passage but referred to a joint parliamentary panel for scrutiny, with their introduction widely seen as an attempt to intimidate the Opposition and deflect attention from its spirited protest against the SIR.
On Wednesday, the Opposition had responded by tearing up copies of the “draconian” bills in the Lok Sabha and hurling them at Union home minister Amit Shah.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former Union home minister P. Chidambaram termed the bill “patently unconstitutional” in a post on X.
“Have you heard of anything more bizarre in the legal world? No charges, no trial, no conviction but the verdict of the people in an election will be overturned by a mere arrest (usually on fake charges),” he wrote.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and the floor leaders of the NDA parties attended the Speaker’s tea meeting but the entire Opposition skipped it.
Modi was learnt to have taken a dig at the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, at the meeting by saying that “talented young” Congress MPs were denied the chance to speak in the House because of “one family’s insecurity”.
Some within the Opposition are considering boycotting the joint parliamentary panel that will scrutinise the three contentious bills. “The unconstitutional bills are aimed only at threatening us; so we may protest by not sending the names of our MPs to be part of the panel,” an Opposition leader said.
Many ruling alliance MPs too believe that the three bills — one of them a constitutional amendment — are meant more for optics than passage.
A constitutional amendment bill needs to be passed by a two-thirds majority in both Houses — impossible given the NDA’s numbers.
In a Lok Sabha that currently has 542 members, a two-thirds majority would require 362 votes. The NDA’s strength in the House is 293. Even if Opposition members from outside the INDIA bloc back the amendment, reaching the cut-off would be an uphill task.
The NDA has only a slender majority in the Rajya Sabha.
Government representatives on Thursday continued their bluster on the three bills.
“The Opposition is accusing the BJP of ‘vote chori’ with false claims. Now we have brought in an anti-corruption legislation that will test their stand. The Opposition’s protest shows they want to rule from jail,” a Union minister told The Telegraph, seeking anonymity.
The undeclared boycott of the Speaker’s tea meeting is being seen also as a reflection of the Opposition’s strained relations with Lok Sabha Speaker OM Birla.
Privately, Opposition leaders accused Birla of repeatedly refusing to let them raise key issues while giving the ruling side a free run.
In his valedictory remarks in the House, Birla expressed “anguish on planned disruptions” by the Opposition.
“Shouting slogans, displaying placards and continuous deadlock are insults to parliamentary decorum,” he said.