Venkaiah Naidu breaks down in Rajya Sabha as opposition protests farm laws

Indian
Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu broke down in the House
on Tuesday while reading out a statement condemning the Opposition’s behaviour.
Naidu termed the Opposition’s actions “sacrilege” and a violation of the “temple
of democracy”.

On Tuesday,
Opposition MPs climbed on the officials’ table at the centre of the Rajya Sabha
threw files and waived black flags during a discussion on farmer protests over
the three contentious agriculture laws.

Many MPs stood on
their tables while some sat on them for hours.

Distressed at the
way the MPs conducted themselves, Venkaiah Nadu said, “I have no words to convey
my anguish and condemn such acts as I spent a sleepless night…last night.” The
Vice-President was visibly choking up.

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Resuming after nearly
a minute-long pause, Naidu resumed, “I struggle to find out the reason or
provocation for forcing this august house to hit such a low yesterday.”

The Rajya Sabha Chairman
further said that the opposition could have discussed its objections to the
farm laws, protested, or voted against them.

“But it is for the
government to act. You cannot force the government to do this or not to do this…Yesterday
was a golden opportunity for the concerned members to go on record…but it seems
their sole intention was to not allow the house to function,” Venkaiah Naidu
said.

This comment
enraged Opposition MPs who claimed that the Rajya Sabha Chairman was speaking
for the government instead of staying neutral.

While the
opposition’s protests were not telecast yesterday, some MPs took to social
media to share videos.

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Naidu took issue
with this and called upon MPs to “seriously reflect” on what had happened. “I
was very sad and deeply anguished,” the Vice President said.

Apparently in a response
to the Vice-President’s Congress MP Jairam Ramesh put out a tweet saying, “Presiding
officers of Parliament are supposed to be neutral umpires, not partisan
players.”

“They cannot
represent a totally one-sided picture of the goings-on in the House and further
aggravate the situation. Misplaced emotion leads to commotion,” Ramesh said.