Opposition’s demand for MHA discussion in Rajya Sabha rejected

New Delhi: The Opposition’s demand for a discussion on the functioning of the Amit Shah-led Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Rajya Sabha has been rejected, a decision that has not gone down well with the INDIA bloc, which plans to raise the issue in Parliament again.

Instead of the MHA, the Rajya Sabha’s list of matters for Monday indicated that the discussion on the functioning of the Ministry of Cooperation, which is also headed by Shah, will be taken up after Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan responds to the discussion on his ministry and after the debate on the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is over.

The decision to “ignore” the demand to include the MHA in the discussion will be “strongly” raised in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Opposition leaders said, adding that they plan to write to Dhankhar again protesting the decision and including the debate on the functioning of the MHA.

On Thursday, 15 Indian parties and the BJD jointly wrote to Dhankhar seeking the inclusion of the MHA among the four ministries whose functioning should be debated in the Upper House.

TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said the government has ignored the opposition’s demand. “This is not what we expected. There were demands to discuss the Ministry of Defence and MHA in the Business Advisory Committee. The government is running away from discussing defence and home affairs,” he said DH.

Sources said the Opposition parties wanted to raise issues including violence in Manipur, terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, delay in census 2021, federal structure and alleged misuse of central agencies during the debate.

When the Congress filed a breach of privilege notice against Home Minister Amit Shah over the landslide victory in Wayanad, accusing him of misleading the House, the Opposition too sought to harden its stance against the government.

The Lok Sabha has elected four ministries – Health and Family Welfare, Education, Housing and Urban Affairs and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The guillotine will be called on all Demand for Grants at 6 pm on Monday.

Announcing that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is the third ministry to be discussed, Dhankhar said on Thursday that he would discuss the demand and then take a decision. The first ministry to be discussed was Housing and Urban Development, with the BJP initiating the debate.

This was followed by a discussion on the Ministry of Agriculture initiated by the Congress, while a discussion on new and renewable energy was initiated on Monday by Derek O’Brien, president of the Trinamool Congress party, followed by a discussion on the Ministry of Cooperation, led by Tiruchi Siva, president of the DMK party.

Before the 16 parties sent the joint letter, O’Brien wrote to Dhankhar that all parties had been asked to give their three preferred ministries for discussion and Trinamool had given its first and only preference as MHA in a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee, which finalises the business of the House.