Lok Sabha adjourned for the day after passage of two bills amid protests over Manipur issue

New Delhi: Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Thursday amid continuous protests by opposition members over the violence in Manipur. The House took up and passed two bills after brief discussions as opposition members kept raising slogans and displaying placards demanding the presence of the prime minister in the lower house. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill as well as a measure to repeal obsolete laws were passed before the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.

The House witnessed a total of three adjournments in the day over the Manipur issue. After an earlier adjournment, when the House assembled at 2 pm, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a statement on the government's foreign engagements amid disruptions. A spat broke out between Union minister Piyush Goyal and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury over the opposition disrupting Jaishankar's statement. After Jaishankar's statement, Chowdhury tried to raise a point of order. Goyal stood up and said that he would not allow the Congress leader to speak in protest against the disruption of the external affairs minister's statement.

As the war of words between the government and the opposition continued and several opposition members also kept on raising slogans over the Manipur violence, the House was adjourned for 20 minutes. Just before the House was adjourned, a Congress member hurled torn papers at the the Chair. When the House reassembled at 3 pm, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi raised the incident and urged the Chair to name the member. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill was subsequently taken up for consideration.

In his opening remarks on the bill, Goyal lashed out at the opposition members who were dressed in black as a mark of protest, saying they were trying to hide their black deeds behind their attire. Without naming AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha who was photographed with a crow hovering over his head in the Parliament complex on Wednesday, Goyal said that in black clothes they have even attracted a crow. In the morning, Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm as opposition members, dressed om black, continued with their protests demanding a statement from the prime minister on the situation in ethnic strife-torn Manipur followed by a full-fledged discussion on it.