8/9/2018 Congress Will Skip Venkaiah Naidu's Breakfast.

"Anguished," Say Leaders

Congress Will Skip Venkaiah

Naidu's Breakfast. "Anguished,"
Say Leaders
In March this year, it was Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah
Naidu who had called off a special dinner for
parliamentarians because they had been disrupting
parliamentary proceedings.
All India | Reported by Sunil Prabhu, Edited by Aloke Tikku | Updated: August 09, 2018 23:15 IST

Congress lawmakers will not go for the breakfast hosted by Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah
Naidu

NEW DELHI:

Upset at not being allowed to raise their concerns around the Rafale fighter jet deal,
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/congress-will-skip-venkaiah-naidus-breakfast-anguished-say-leaders-1898079?pfrom=home-topscroll 1/2
8/9/2018 Congress Will Skip Venkaiah Naidu's Breakfast. "Anguished," Say Leaders
Upset at not being allowed to raise their concerns around the Rafale fighter jet deal,
Congress lawmakers have decided to turn down a breakfast invite from Rajya Sabha
chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for Friday morning. A senior Congress leader told NDTV
that the decision to stay away from the breakfast meet was taken to signal the anguish
of the party, the largest opposition party, to the presiding officer at what they allege, is
his partisan role in conducting the house.

The immediate trigger was Mr Naidu's refusal to first decline permission to leaders from
the Congress and others to raise their demand for a parliamentary probe into the Rafale
fighter jet deal, switching off their microphones and hurriedly push through two bills
despite their protests.

One bill provides for setting up a National Sports Authority in Manipur. The second
relates to carry out changes to the Homoeopathy Central Council.

Congress leaders say they had cooperated with the government to pass the law
restoring the powers of the police to make arrests on complaints received under the
Dalit atrocities law.

But when the Congress tried to raise their concerns after the passage of the law to undo
a Supreme Court, a senior party leader said, the Rajya Sabha chairman disallowed
them and ordered that nothing that the Congress-led opposition was saying would go
on record.

Mr Naidu is hosting the breakfast at 9.30 am for his new deputy, Harivansh, a first-timer
lawmaker from Janata Dal United.

A Congress leader said skipping from the breakfast meet appeared to be the
appropriate response, particularly considering how the Rajya Sabha chairman too had
used such events to drive home similar points.

It was a reference to Mr Naidu's last-minute decision to call off an elaborate dinner that
he had planned back in March this year. He had then made it a point to tell lawmakers
that he was cancelling the event because they had been disrupting proceedings during
the budget session.

This isn't the first time that the opposition lawmakers have complained about the way
the Rajya Sabha is conducted. Last week, they had also proposed to send a formal
letter to Mr Naidu to register their complaint. Opposition leaders later decided to freeze
this plan for the ongoing session that concludes on Friday.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/congress-will-skip-venkaiah-naidus-breakfast-anguished-say-leaders-1898079?pfrom=home-topscroll 2/2