Still deadlocked over Bihar SIR, both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha adjourned again

Proceedings in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were adjourned amid persistent demands from the Opposition for discussion of a range of contentious issues, most prominently the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar.

The protest over the SIR is expected to intensify, in particular, with Opposition parties planning coordinated actions both inside and outside Parliament.

The Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day shortly after it reassembled at noon on Friday, 25 July, as Opposition parties started raising slogans demanding the withdrawal of the SIR of voter rolls in Bihar.

The Upper House will now meet at 11 a.m. on Monday, 28 July.

When it met at noon, BJP MP K. Laxman started a discussion and wanted to know the details of the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan from Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the minister of agriculture and farmers' welfare.

While Chouhan rose to speak, the Opposition MPs continued their protest and raised slogans demanding that the SIR exercise be stopped. Chouhan said that he wanted to answer the question as it is important and related to the welfare of farmers and women, but the Opposition didn't relent.

BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari, who was in the Chair, tried to urge the protesting members to settle down, but failing to do so, he adjourned the House for the day to reassemble on Monday.

During the morning session (Zero Hour), deputy chairman Harivansh said he had received 28 notices under Rule 267 demanding discussion on various issues, including SIR, the alleged discrimination against Bengali migrant workers in other states, lack of an elected government in Manipur and the India–UK free trade agreement.

He, however, declined all the adjournment notices and called BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari to make his Zero Hour mention.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha witnessed another round of uproar on the fifth consecutive day and was adjourned minutes after convening.

Speaker Om Birla exhorted the Opposition benches to break the impasse by discussing the issues on the agenda first, but as the vociferous protest continued, the Speaker adjourned the Lower House till 2 p.m.

When the Lok Sabha convened on Friday morning, the parliamentarians first stood together to pay their respects to and remember the brave heroes of Kargil. Speaker Om Birla led the House in paying tribute to the martyrs of the Kargil war as the MPs stood in silence for about a minute to honour their supreme sacrifice for the motherland.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated every year on 26 July to observe India's victory over Pakistan in 1999, when the security forces chased away Pakistani forces from the mountain tops of Kargil in Ladakh.

Saluting the valour of the armed forces, speaker Om Birla said, "The nation is observing the 26th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas. Our brave forces defied all odds and operated in extremely adverse circumstances to defeat the enemy. We salute their valour and pay tributes to them who made the supreme sacrifice for the nation."

Soon after the minute-long silence, Opposition members raised loud protests over the Election Commission of India's electoral rolls revision in Bihar and stormed into the well of the House. They shouted slogans and waved placards, drawing the ire of the Speaker, who had denied them permission to use placards in the House on previous occasions also.

Birla urged the protesting lawmakers to meet him in person to break the deadlock, while advising them that the Question Hour was for debating issues of national importance and not for "slogan shouting".

He also urged the members of both the treasury and opposition benches to hammer out a solution by engaging in dialogue.

When the sloganeering didn't stop, he adjourned the House till 2 p.m.

The Congress-led Opposition has been unrelenting in its protests over the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls, which it has called an "institutionalised cleansing drive" by the ECI to benefit the ruling party.

With PTI inputs