- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Pegasus snooping controversy continued to rock the monsoon session of the Indian parliament for the third straight day as members of the opposition party staged protests.
In the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the parliament, information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met a fierce opposition from a Trinamool Congress colleague Shantanu Sen who snatched the paper from where he was reading out a statement, tore it and flung it at deputy chairman of the house Harivansh Narayan Singh. Vaishnaw, who recently took charge of the ministry from Ravi Shankar Prasad, was forced to lay the paper on the table instead.
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Petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri also had a heated argument with Sen and marshals had to intervene to bring the situation under control. The upper house was adjourned thrice during the day and the final one saw the adjournment extending till Friday (23).
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Seeing the opposition members trooping into the well of the house and raising slogans and showing placards, house chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the country’s vice president, said, “Members seem to be not interested in discussing people’s issues.”
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Opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal member Manoj Jha slammed Vaishnaw saying his attitude was “unfortunate”.
“The way the IT Minister made a statement amidst the uproar, it seems that the government only wanted to make a mockery of this issue,” he said.
The Lok Sabha or the lower house also witnessed a number of disruptions during the day.
Besides the Pegasus issue, the opposition members also protested over the income-tax raids that were conducted against major Indian media outlet Dainik Bhaskar Group.
