Speaker disallows Question Hour adjournment notices

Lok Sabha Speaker today disallowed notices of adjournment of Question Hour on issues ranging from price rise and alleged fuelling of anti-India sentiments in Nepal.

Naidu said the government condemned those incidents as they were against the traditional and highly cherished values of tolerance.

The issue of intolerance is set to reverberate in the Lok Sabha on Monday with the Speaker accepting the notices of CPI(M) member P Karunakaran and Congress MP KC Venugopal for a discussion on the matter.

The party is highlighting issues such as the killing of a Muslim man in western UP over beef eating rumours, the award wapsi by writers and artistes, and the provocative speeches of some Union ministers.

The Revolutionary Socialist Party’s N.K. Premchandran had given a notice on the issue of intolerance but a discussion on the subject is already part of Lok Sabha business for the day. It is expected that Congress MPs will make a strong pitch to seek a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

Outside Parliament, the Congress has deployed its youth wing to stage a protest over intolerance at Jantar Mantar on Monday in order to pressurise the government. The Lower House is expected to take up the intolerance debate at 12 noon.

The Opposition has been seeking a discussion on the issue of intolerance for quite some time. Sultan Ahmed from West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress has stated uplift issues for debates shouldn’t transform into disturbances.

The first two days of the session that began on November 26 were functional, as parties did not want to be seen blocking a discussion on the Constitution on the occasion of Ambedkar’s anniversary even though the opposition attacked the government over alleged rise in intolerance and communal violence.