The Congress party backed by TMC and JD(U), on Tuesday forced four adjournments of the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over what it called as “biggest scam of this century” in the printing of two different kinds of 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Opposition Congress members thronged into the well even as Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the opposition party has been raising “frivolous” issues without giving notices to stall Zero Hour proceedings.
Interestingly, the opposition’s allegations were supported by the copies of some notes displayed by Sharad Yadav, from JD(U). Some members including Derek O’Brien (TMC) displayed the new 500 rupee notes issued after demonetization to show the different sizes they were being printed.
He first offered to submit the notes to Jaitley, for him to judge and later walked up to him to explain to him the difference. He, however, did not leave the notes with the Finance Minister. Jaitley said there is no provision in the rules that anyone could “flash any paper and say it is the point of order.”
“There is a misuse of zero hour which is going on,” he said, adding that the Congress first raised the issue of provision for None-Of-The-Above (NOTA) in the ballot for Rajya Sabha poll but then discovered that the provision had been made during their rule.
“You have been raising frivolous issues in the Zero Hour without giving notice” with a view to disrupt and not get replies, he said, but did not reply to the opposition contentions on different sized notes. Raising the issue through a point of order, Kapil Sibal (Cong) said different sizes of the new high denomination currency was being printed – “one for the ruling party (members) and one for the others”.
