The Lok Sabha session began at 11 a.m. on Thursday and within minutes of it starting, opposition and ruling party engaged in verbal clashes over a number of issues.
While the Congress demanded an immediate debate on the lynching issue and the BJP sought an apology from the Congress members suspended for throwing papers towards the Speaker. During the zero hour, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) raised the issue that the party had given prior notice on June 5 for a discussion on the lynching issue. He said that LS Speaker Sumitra Manahja had agreed for the debate but the house was not ready for it. He further added that if the debate was taken up immediately the party would not raise the demand of taking back the orders of suspension of 6 Congress MLAs for 5 days.
Another MLA Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) commented that the concept of adjournment notice should be removed from the rule book. He said that what is the point of having the adjournment notice if it could not be accepted for important issues like the discussion on lynching.
Responding to this comment of Salim, Sumitra Mahajan said that he could not challenge the speaker like this. She said that she had never denied for the debate, she just said that it would be taken up after the question hour.
While Congress demanded a debate on lynching issue, on the other hand, BJP demanded an apology from Congress MLAs who were suspended by Mahajan for their unruly behavior in the House. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said had he thrown paper balls towards a woman Speaker outside Parliament, it would have invited a criminal case against him. The Congress MLAs should apologise to the Speaker. He further added that Parliament was the temple of democracy and the Opposition party should maintain its decorum.