Dhankhar fails to broker peace as protests stall Rajya Sabha

Mr. Dhankhar held three rounds of meetings with the floor leaders

With the second part of the Budget Session likely to be a complete washout, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said that “the two sides in the House have taken a rigid stand” and if a way out has to be found out of this deadlock, then the entire House must interact amongst themselves.

Mr. Dhankhar held three rounds of meetings with the floor leaders, the last one held Thursday morning. All like-minded Opposition parties had skipped the two meetings that was called for on Tuesday. In a last ditch effort, Mr. Dhankhar called the floor leaders again at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday.

This meeting, according to sources, was again inconclusive. The government was represented by Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi. Responding to this the Congress, who were represented by the party’s deputy leader Pramod Tiwari and chief whip Jairam Ramesh, and other Opposition leaders said the issue on hand was their demand for a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the investments made by SBI and LIC in the Adani Group. To this, as per sources, the ruling party claimed that they have nothing to hide, though at the same time, they did not give any assurance about forming such a committee. The meeting ended without any resolution.

Later speaking in the House, Mr. Dhankhar said, “The two sides in the House have taken a rigid stand. I appeal to the entire House that they must interact amongst themselves and find a way out. We are not sending a good message to the people, at large, from this Upper House.”

Mr. Goyal also spoke out saying that despite all their efforts, there is “absolutely no reconciliation possible” with the principal Opposition party. “I think the nation, today, is extremely concerned about the behaviour of their senior leader and about the comments he has made. It is important that the nation hears an apology, a due apology, from the leader of their party, who is responsible for causing so much discredit to the country,” he said.

The House was adjourned till 2:00 p.m. even as Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge was speaking amidst din. The House adjourned within minutes in the post-lunch session, without conducting any business, amidst the protests.