Naidu breaks down over conduct of Oppn MPs

New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI):
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venakaiah Naidu broke down on Wednesday as he expressed deep anguish over some opposition MPs climbing on the Table of the House, and said he couldn’t sleep because of the sacrilege in Parliament, which is regarded as the “temple of democracy”.
Expressing distress over the ruckus created by opposition MPs in the House on Tuesday when a discussion on farmers’ agitation against farm bill was taken up, he said he struggled to find a provocation or reason for such a low in the “august House”.
“I have no words to convey my anguish and to condemn such acts. As I spent a sleepless night last night, I struggled to find the provocation or reason for forcing this august House to hit such a low yesterday,” an emotional Naidu said as he read out his remarks at the start of the proceedings in the Upper House of Parliament.
Regaining his composure he continued to read his remarks but was interrupted by some TMC and Congress MPs who raised the issue of House dignity also being lowered by the passage of numerous bills within minutes and without debate. One MP said the Chair should be impartial, following which slogan-shouting TMC and few other MPs trooped into the well of the House.
“Please have the decency… you may not agree,” Naidu, who completed four years in office on Wednesday, said as he continued to read his remarks amid sloganeering. Thereafter he adjourned the proceedings for almost an hour. On Tuesday, some TMC, Congress and Left MPs climbed on the House Table which is placed right below the presiding officers’ chair, forcing multiple adjournments.
“I rise in deep anguish to place on record the way this august House is being subjected to sacrilege and that too, propelled by a sense of competition among some sections of the House, since the commencement of this monsoon session,” he said. “Everything said or done violating, hurting or destroying the sacredness of any place amounts to an act of sacrilege.”
Stating that the Parliament is regarded as the ‘temple of democracy’, he said the table area where the officers and reporters of the House, the Secretary-General and the Presiding Officer are seated is considered as the holy sanctum sanctorum of
the House.