NDA floor management in House is going for a toss

NDA floor management in House is going for a toss

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 01:55 AM IST
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New Delhi :  One goof up after another on the floor of Parliament has left the government red-faced this week. With treasury bench members committing blunders over voting on crucial bills and the parliamentary affairs ministry appearing confused on several occasions, the government was not only mocked at by the opposition benches but even rebuked by the Chair.

Thankfully for the government all this happened in the Lok Sabha where it had the numbers and crucial constitution amendment bills did not get stuck.

The government had cut a sorry figure on Wednesday when 12 BJP MPs cast their vote against an amendment moved by the government. However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan came to the government’s rescue as she allowed division for the second time. Arun Jaitley was seen pulling up MoS parliamentary affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy for the poor show.

On Thursday again, BJP members shouted ”ayes” when an amendment was moved by the Congress on the Juvenile Justice Act presented by Maneka Gandhi. The Congress benches rose up in unison demanding that the amendment had been supported loudly. Here too, Rudy had to stand up and clarify on the voice vote. To avoid more blunders, Rudy was seen moving from one row to another, pleading with members to be careful.

However, an even more embarrassing moment for the government came on Thursday again when Rudy was loudly rebuked by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for trying to point fingers at a senior member. TMC floor leader Saugata Roy had raised a point of order on the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets Bill, popularly called the black money Bill. Even as the Speaker was trying to clarify the issue Rudy complained that Roy was in the habit of pushing his ”gyaan” on every conceivable issue. This irked the Speaker who sternly asked Rudy to sit down and not react on an issue which she was dealing with.

Floor management in both houses of Parliament is proving to be a challenge for the government since day one of the very first session in 2014. Even alliance partners have started expressing their unease. While the party can take the plea that it is heavily outnumbered in the upper house, it has no such explanation to give in the lower house where the NDA benches together account for at least 336 members.

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