Parliament Budget Session: Lok Sabha Passes Resumes Proceedings After Adjournment Following RaGa’ Visit

NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday paid a brief visit to the Parliament. The visit comes a day after the senior Congress leader was convicted in a criminal defamation case by the Surat Court. Following the Wayanad MPs’ visit, both houses of the Parliament were adjourned. The lower house resumed its business and witnessed the passing of the Finance Bill while the upper house remains adjourned until 2:30pm.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi attended a meeting of party MPs. Congress Parliamentary Party Chief Sonia Gandhi was also present during the meeting. The meeting was organized by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. Besides Congress members from DMK, JD(U), CPI(M), MDMK, JMM, IUML, NCP, and AAP attended the meeting amongst other like-minded parties.

Meanwhile, Congress has decided to stage a protest at Vijay Chowk opposing the verdict by the Surat Court. All opposition parties today marched to the parliament amid heavy police deployment. The parties are seeking a meeting with the president Murmu.

The impasse continued on Friday. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned on Thursday amid a stalemate in Parliament between the ruling BJP and the opposition parties.

The parliament has seen continuous disruptions since the start of the second part of the budget session on March 13 with the BJP demanding an apology from Rahul Gandhi. Lately, the 52 year old has been convicted for a derogatory remark against PM Modi issued in 2019 campaign. He is however granted a 30 day bail. The opposition demanded an umambiguous apology on his remarks at Cambridge University in the UK, Gandhi said that everybody knows and it’s been in the news a lot that Indian democracy “is under pressure and under attack”.