Ruckus in Parliament over rise in fuel prices

The hike in fuel prices led to intense protests in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, resulting in two adjournments in Rajya Sabha

Chaos erupted in the Upper House after Congress leader Shakti Sinh Gohil and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Dola Sen, besides a few other opposition MPs, insisted that their adjournment motion notice on price rise under Rule 267 be admitted.

Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu, however, refused to accept the notice, saying the issue can be “discussed during demands for grants of the ministries concerned”.

Angry over this, TMC members stormed into the well of the House, carrying placards while leaders of other opposition parties such as the Congress, Left, Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena raised slogans and sought an urgent debate on the matter pertaining to fuel price rise.

Initially, Naidu appealed to the protesting MPs, saying 19 members had already given Zero Hour notices. He later directed that “names of the people, whoever is carrying placards, their names are to be noted and put in bulletin”, suggesting strict action against them.

The Rajya Sabha chairman then adjourned the proceedings till 12 noon.

The disruptions, however, continued when the House met after the adjournment, prompting deputy chairman Harivansh to adjourn the proceedings till 2 pm. The House resumed normal functioning in the post-lunch session.

The two adjournments interrupted the continuous run of 12 consecutive full and peaceful sittings of Rajya Sabha. “The previous record of 13 sittings without forced adjournments was in 2019 monsoon session,” said a functionary close to Naidu.

In Lok Sabha, Congress, DMK, TMC and some other opposition members, staged a walkout, demanding a rollback of the increase in prices of fuel and cooking gas.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury maintained that “the opposition had suspected that after the election results, there will be an increase in the price of diesel and LPG”. “We have been proved right,” he said.

“The Government of India has increased the prices of petroleum products. There has been an increase of more than ₹50 per LPG cylinder. This is not correct. The Government of India should roll back this hike,” DMK’s T R Baalu said.

Voicing similar concerns, TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay said “prices have been hiked to extreme levels so far as fuel, diesel, and domestic gas are concerned”. “We ask the Government to roll back the hike,” he added.