Opposition in Black Dress Held Protest March, Rahul Gandhi Served Notice to Vacate MP Bungalow

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Mar 27: Wearing black clothes, several Opposition MPs on Monday marched from the Parliament House to Vijaya Chowk over the Adani issue and disqualification of the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha even as the former Congress president was served a notice to vacate the house he was allotted as MP within a month.

The eviction notice from the Lok Sabha housing panel came two days after his disqualification from Parliament following the two-year jail term handed to him by a Gujarat sessions court in a defamation case. Gandhi’s Team, however, said so far they have not received the eviction notice to vacate the Tughlaq Lane bungalow.

The marchers including Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, gathered near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Parliament complex and raised slogans against the government. Holding a huge “Satyamev Jayate” banner and placards with “save democracy” written on them, the MPs proceeded towards Vijay Chowk where they staged a sit-in.

As the turmoil in Parliament continued, both Houses were adjourned the day after brief businesses. The Rajya Sabha cleared several money bills and returned them to the Lok Sabha without any discussion, as the Opposition continued to raise slogans and protest. These include the Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No 2) Bill, J&K Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill, 2023.

Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned within a minute of the start of the day’s proceedings as protests in both Houses continued. Members of the Opposition held a strategy meeting earlier on Monday morning. Members have dressed in black to protest the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi and to condole the “death of democracy in India,” they said.

“How has Adani’s wealth multiplied so much in the last few years? When you are going to foreign countries how many times have you taken the industrialist with you? The PM has not been able to give answers to questions raised against Adani,” Kharge told reporters at Vijay Chowk. “We want a JPC on the Adani issue. Why is the government not agreeing to this? Why are you scared of a JPC probe… it means ‘dal mein kuchh kala hai’ [something is wrong],” he said.

The Opposition has been seeking a joint parliamentary committee probe into the allegations of corporate fraud and stock price manipulations against the Adani Group. Kharge also raised the issue of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as MP after a Surat court convicted and sentenced him in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

“You want to defame Rahul Gandhi that is why you transferred the case to Gujarat even as the comments were made in Kolar in Karnataka. Today is a black day for democracy,” Kharge said. He said Opposition MPs were dressed in black as the Prime Minister was “finishing” democracy.

Trinamool Congress, which has so far stayed away from opposition protests, joined the sit-in on Monday. Earlier, MPs of various Opposition parties, including Congress, TMC, BRS, and SP, met at the Parliament complex to discuss a strategy to take forward the Adani issue as well as Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification matter in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha membership on Friday, a day after he was convicted in a criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark by the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Surat. The disqualification is expected to have a big impact on the remaining Budget Session proceedings.

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Finance Bill moved by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman amid loud sloganeering by Opposition members. With the passage of the Finance Bill, tax proposals announced in the Budget would be passed. The Budget envisages an expenditure of around ₹45 lakh crore for the financial year starting April 1.

Having resumed after an untimely adjournment in the morning, the house could not transact much business in the late afternoon hours as well. The house took cognisance of important papers laid on the table before moving to take up matters under Rule 377 – all amidst continued protests by members from the opposition benches.

Motions to discuss, accept and return the following Money Bills are moved by Pankaj Chaudhary and passed in quick succession as the Opposition continues to chant “Modi, Adani, bhai, bhai” and no discussion occurs.

The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2023The Appropriation (No.2) Bill, 2023The Appropriation Bill, 2023

Schedules and enacting formulae for the bills also adopted in a similar manner.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moves that the Finance Bill, 2023 be discussed. No discussion occurs. Amendments are also cleared in a similar fashion. Ms. Sitharaman moves and the House passes the resolution to return the Finance Bill to the Lok Sabha. At no point does the chaos abate.

The Trinamool Congress, which has not been attending meetings convened by Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Mallikarjun Kharge, too, joined the Opposition huddle and participated in a march taken out by Opposition MPs.

The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), however, did not attend the joint Opposition protest at the Gandhi statue and the march to Parliament. Sources said it also won’t attend a dinner to be hosted by Kharge tonight. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is upset over Rahul’s remarks on V D Savarkar. On Sunday, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray told the Congress that he and his party won’t tolerate insults to Savarkar.

As decided, Congress MPs including Sonia Gandhi came to Parliament wearing black attire. The Congress had also urged Opposition parties to join their black attire protest, and some of them came wearing black clothes.

Attacking the BJP, Kharge said “They use the ED and CBI against those who don’t bow before them… In the Rajya Sabha we are asked to authenticate whatever we say… We followed all procedures to ask for a JPC to be set up to probe the meteoric rise in Adani’s wealth…” he said. Kharge added that Rahul was disqualified because he asked tough questions to the Prime Minister on his “relationship” with Adani.

“The government has not been able to answer the questions we raised,” he said and asked why the Government is scared of constituting a JPC, when it has a majority in Parliament. He said it was a black day for democracy. “Such things never happened earlier… for small things… The government disqualified Rahul Gandhi in minutes… with lighting speed… because it does not want him to speak in Parliament… the government wants to gag him… and not let him speak about Adani,” he said.

Leaders of as many as 17 parties attended the meeting convened by Kharge. Although the Shiv Sena attended the meeting, it did not join the protest. Among parties that attended were Trinamool Congress, DMK, AAP, SP, JD(U), BRS, CPI(M), RJD, NCP, CPI, IUML, MDMK, Kerala Congress, RSP and the National Conference.

While the two-year jail sentence to Rahul Gandhi and his subsequent disqualification from parliament appear to have helped the Congress take a step towards healing its breach with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Telangana’s ruling Bharat Raksha Samithi, fresh fissure appears imminent elsewhere. Upset with Gandhi’s comment about VD Savarkar, ally Uddhav Thackeray has announced that he would skip the Congress’s dinner meet in Delhi.

“My name is not Savarkar, won’t apologise,” was Mr Gandhi’s defiant response after he got the jail term over his over his comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname. But it appears to have deeply offended Thackeray’s party. The former Maharashtra Chief Minister had warned of a rift in the Opposition alliance in Maharashtra if Gandhi did not “stop insulting our God.”

“Veer Savarkar is our God, and any disrespect towards him will not be tolerated. We are prepared to fight, but insulting our Gods is not something we will tolerate,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said. “I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that we have come together, that’s right, we have come together to save democracy and constitution in this country. But do not make any statements that will create fissures,” he added.

This is Thackeray’s second warning to Mr Gandhi over his comments on VD Savarkar, one of the BJP’s biggest icons. In November last year, when Gandhi had spoken of Savarkar’s mercy petition to the British, Thackeray had said he did not “approve of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks… Have immense respect and faith for Swatyantra Veer Savarkar. It cannot be erased”.

This morning, Trinamool leaders Prasun Banerjee and Jawahar Sircar had attended the Congress’s strategy meet in parliament and participated in a “black” protest against Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha. So did Bharat Rashtra Samithi of K Chandrashekar Rao, who has been working for years towards a non-Congress, non-BJP front.

The Trinamool, however, made it clear that its support was restricted to the protest on Gandhi’s disqualification. “The question of walking together is due symbolism, which we undertook today – a special mark of solidarity against coordinated and undemocratic attacks on everyone,” Sircar had said.

The situation underscores the opposition’s on-again, off-again journey towards unity in the run-up to next year’s general election. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had said the “silver lining” to Gandhi’s two-year jail sentence was the “unprecedented opposition unity” it had brought. Calling it the “exhibit number one in the law of unintended consequences of the BJP action,” he said, “We have seen regional parties in opposition that in each of their states has regarded the Congress as an opponent, actually come out and stand by our side.”