Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 27: Even as the proceedings in both Houses of Parliament continued to remain disrupted for the second day on Wednesday due to adjournments following opposition ruckus, the development hinted a hole in the opposition INDIA block as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) showed preference to the functioning of Parliament to raise issues confronting West Bengal.
Proceedings in both the Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day on Wednesday amid opposition protests over the Adani controversy and violence in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh where four persons were killed during a court-ordered survey of a mosque alleged to be built on a Hindu temple.
In the Lok Sabha, Opposition members trooped to the Well of the House raising slogans as soon as the House met again at 12 noon. BJP member Dilip Saikia, who was in the chair, adjourned the proceedings for the day after parliamentary papers were laid on the table. Earlier, the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had taken up the Question Hour when the House convened at 11 am but had to adjourn the proceedings amid sloganeering by the Opposition.
The proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were briefly adjourned in the morning session due to opposition protest, and when the House re-assembled at 11.30 a.m., there were identical scenes. This prompted Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to adjourn the proceedings for the day, saying the “House is not in order.”
The trouble started after Mr Dhankhar rejected 18 notices under a rule of the House to suspend scheduled business and take up issues mentioned in the notices. The notices related to demand for ‘constitution of a JPC to investigate the alleged misconduct, including corruption, bribery, financial irregularities of the Adani Group in connivance with other authorities,’ violence in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and rising incidents of crime in the national capital.
The Adani Group clarified on Wednesday that Gautam Adani, and his nephew Sagar have not been charged with any violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the indictment that authorities filed in the New York court in an alleged bribery case.
Following the continued disruptions, the TMC signalling a rift in the INDIA bloc after the Congress’ mega defeats in the Maharashtra and Haryana elections, said it would not be a rubber stamp for its ally’s decisions. Differing with the Congress’ push for a discussion in Parliament on alleged corruption, the Mamata Banerjee-led party has said it wanted the House to function so that it can raise the issues of the people of West Bengal.
Sources in the TMC said the stand has been endorsed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has emphasised that the Congress was not an electoral ally of the party despite both being members of the INDIA alliance, and the TMC did not have to accept all the “unilateral decisions” taken by the Congress.
The Congress and the TMC had contested the Lok Sabha elections and the recent bypolls in West Bengal separately. The Trinamool Congress won all six seats in the bypoll and 29 of 40 constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections, bettering its 2019 tally despite a big effort being put into the state by the BJP.
A TMC leader said the party does want to discuss corruption but doesn’t want it to overshadow the issues of the people of West Bengal. “West Bengal has been deprived of funds, there has been a rise in prices across the country, and we are pushing for a law for speedier justice for women who are raped. These are some of the issues that we want to raise. For this, we need Parliament to function,” said the leader.
Despite being members of the INDIA Alliance at the Centre, the TMC and the Congress have had an uneasy relationship and there was also speculation about the regional party pulling out of the opposition grouping ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. While the cracks had been papered over with statements by Mamata Banerjee and the top leadership of the Congress, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi, they have reappeared several times since then.
After the Congress’ unexpected defeat in Haryana in October, the Trinamool Congress lost no time in hitting out at its ally, accusing it of “arrogance” and not accommodating regional parties in states where it sees itself as strong. “This attitude leads to electoral losses – ‘if we feel we’re winning, we will not accommodate regional party but, in states where we’re down, regional parties must accommodate us.’ Arrogance, entitlement, & looking down on regional parties is a recipe for disaster,” Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale had said.
The TMC twisted the knife following the rout of the Congress-Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)-NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) alliance in Maharashtra last week and its MP Kalyan Banerjee called for Mamata Banerjee to be named the head of the INDIA coalition.
“For the last three or four years what have they done? In the INDIA alliance, who is the leader? Nobody has been chosen as a leader, as a face of the opposition. Now it has to be done. The Congress has failed, that much is established. Congress leaders tried in Haryana, they failed. (In) Maharashtra, they have failed. It is not that only Congress has lost, it is that we all, in INDIA alliance, who have lost. We reposed our faith in Congress but it could not achieve the result,” Mr Banerjee had said.
“You see, the byelections happened. Everyone criticised Mamata Banerjee, but we won six out of six seats in Bengal. We won by a margin of 1 lakh. People reposed confidence in Mamata Banerjee. The people of Bengal and people all over India love Mamata Banerjee. Why? Because of her fighting character,” he added.