Opposition members in Rajya Sabha took on chairman Jagdeep Dhankar on Tuesday, after he told the House that members have been giving notices for discussion under Rule 267, but except for one (from SP’s Ramgopal Yadav) all the notices were found to have “outrageous disregard to rules.”

Opposition members from different parties had given notices for discussion under rule 267, which is meant to take up issues of importance on a priority basis, over the last few days. The issues included China (Congress), price rise (Trinamool Congress), political vendetta (Shiv Sena) etc, which had been denied by the chair.

Hence when Dhankar brought up the issue and even announced that the notices were faulty and mocked Yadav as “professor” and TMC’s leader in the House, Derek O’ Brien as “quiz master,” the opposition party leaders took their turns to get back at the chair.
While Yadav did not respond in words, O’Brien reminded the new chairman that he used to be a quiz master but that was long years ago, since he has been a member and leader in the House.

Since Dhankar had reminded the House that his predecessor (M Venkaiah Naidu) had never allowed discussion under rule 267, O’Brien on Tuesday submitted a list of predecessors on the chair – Shankar Dayal Sharma, Bhairon Singh Sekhawat, Hamid Ansari that had allowed more than one discussions during their respective tenures under the rule. Providing a table, the TMC member said Sharma had allowed four discussions, Shekhawat three and Ansari four.

He also listed the issues that were taken up like Jammu & Kashmir situation (1990), Ayodhya demolition (1992), Demonetization of Currency (2016) for example, that were issues of urgent importance at the respective time.

(With inputs from agencies)