Congress MPs in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday staged a sit-in near the Chairman’s podium demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal finalized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with France.

As soon as the Upper House passed the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018 at 3.45 p.m., and Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu took up another bill, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma stood up and demanded to know about the notice he had given for a discussion on the Rafale issue.

“Chairman, sir, this morning I had given a notice under Rule 267 for discussion on the Rafale deal, demanding a JPC in the Rafale deal. This House has to take it up. It could not be taken up in the morning, thanks to the election of the Deputy Chairman. But this issue needs to be discussed in this House,” Sharma said.

However, Naidu said he had “not permitted it”.

The Congress MPs trooped around the Chairman’s podium and started shouting slogans. The MPs then sat down in the well and continued their sloganeering, demanding a JPC probe into the deal.

Meanwhile, the House discussed and passed the National Sports University Bill, 2018, and the Homeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2018 amid the din.

The Congress MPs continued their protest for more than an hour and dispersed only after the House was adjourned for the day around 5.15 p.m. after taking up Special Mentions.

The monsoon session of Parliament concludes on Friday.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Modi government of being anti-Dalit. BJP President Amit Shah hit back saying the Congress must stop treating Dalits with a “patronising and condescending” attitude.

“If Modiji had space for Dalits in his heart, then the policies for Dalits would have been different,” Gandhi told a protest rally by Dalits at Jantar Mantar here.

He said when Modi was the Gujarat Chief Minister he wrote in a book that “Daliton ko safai karne se anand milta hai” (Dalits feel happy when they do cleaning work). “This is his (Modi’s) ideology.”

Gandhi said the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was brought by the Congress when his father Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister.

“But that was allowed to be diluted by Modiji. And the judge who diluted the act was given a promotion,” he said, referring to the appointment of Justice A.K. Goel as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairman

Justices Goel and U.U. Lalit had in a March 20 ruling laid down stringent safeguards, including provisions for anticipatory bail and a “preliminary enquiry” before registration of a case under the act, citing instances of its abuse for political or personal reasons.

The ruling angered Dalits. On July 6, Justice Goel retired from the Supreme Court. On the same day, he was appointed the NGT chairman.

The government, however, made an amendment to the 1989 act that overturned the Supreme Court ruling and restored the provision for immediate arrest of an accused. The amendment was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Gandhi said whereever the BJP was in power, Dalits were being “beaten up and suppressed”.

Pointing out the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a University of Hyderabad PhD student, the Congress leader said Dalits were crushed if they tried to advance in life.

“We don’t want an India where Dalits are suppressed. We want an India where everyone grows. His (Modi’s) thinking is anti-Dalit… The entire country will stand up against him, the BJP and the RSS.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief advised Gandhi to give “some time to facts”, accusing his party of treating Dalits with “patronising and condescending” attitude.

“Rahulji, when you are free from winking and disrupting Parliament, give some time to facts as well. The NDA government, through a Cabinet decision and in Parliament, ensured the strongest amendment to the Act. Why are you protesting that?” Shah said in a series of tweets.

“Would have been good if Congress President would have spoken about his party’s treatment towards Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram and Sitaram Kesari. Congress way of treating Dalits is patronizing and condescending. For years Congress insulted Dalit aspirations,” Shah alleged.

The Rajya Sabha MP also said: “Is it a co-incidence that the year Sonia Gandhi joined the Congress, the Third Front-Congress government opposed reservations in promotions and the year Rahul Gandhi becomes Congress President, they oppose a tough SC/ST Act and OBC Commission!”

Lok Sabha on Thursday witnessed a heated exchange between interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge with the minister challenging Kharge to fight an election against him from Mumbai.

Goyal, who was speaking on the four GST bills taken up by the House for passage, targeted Congress and said it will be reduced to a single digit in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Kharge hit back saying the minister had not even won an election.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar sought an aplogy from Kharge over his remarks.

Congress members were near the Speaker’s podium and raising slogans in favour of their demand for a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Rafale fighter jet deal during Goyal’s speech.

Kharge said the Goods and Services Tax has been implemented in a flawed manner by the Modi government.

He said the minister had never fought an election but was saying that “the Congress will not win even four seats.”

“I want to remind you that you were two members once, and you are talking about us,” he said.

As members of treasury benches protested, Kumar said the Kharge was a senior member but was ignorant of rules of procedure.

“Piyush Goyal Ji is elected to the other House. He has been elected by the States. He knows that, in the constitutional scheme made by Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, anybody can be elected to either of the two Houses of Parliament. Therefore, if this basic knowledge is not with Kharge Ji, then, he should apologize to the entire House. He should apologize to Piyush Goyal Ji,” Kumar said.

The minister said senior former prime minister Manmohan Singh was also a Rajya Sabha member.

“They should remember Dr Manmohan Singh, who is six-time MP from Assam, is still in the other House. We respect him for he became the Prime Minister of this country twice. The same question which Mallikarjun Kharge Ji is asking our friend Piyush Goyal should be posed to Dr. Manmohan Singh also,” he said.

Kumar also targeted Congress over not conferring Bharat Ratna on B.R. Ambedkar and putting up a candidate against him in the Lok Sabha elections.

Kumar said Ambedkar was conferred Bharat Ratna by V.P. Singh government which was supported by the BJP.

Goyal said he spoke at some length as the House was considering four GST bills.

“I did not say anything derogatory. I never imagined he would be so frustrated that he would start making personal allegations. I challenge you to come and fight an election against me in Mumbai,” Goyal said.

Congress member K.C. Venugopal said Kharge had been forced to respond as Goyal had targeted Congress several times during his 45-minute speech.

“Congress brought democracy to the country, that is why you are here,” he said.

The Congress leader also referred to the Rafale deal and said a joint parliamentary committee should be formed to look into it.

He asked the government why it was not disclosing the price of the fighter jet.

Goyal responded by stating that the agreement was in the country’s interest and the allegations were unfounded.

The government has shut down 28 specialised adoption agencies in six states after allegations of illegal adoptions, child abuse and flouting of norms under J.J. Act surfaced, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

In the wake of alleged rape of inmates of a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur and another in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi also requested parliamentarians to visit the shelter homes periodically to check the living conditions and level of care provided to the children.

The Minister for Women and Child Development (WCD) also said that there were only 43 complaints regarding child abuse and neglect in shelter homes and Child Care Institutions (CCIs) from 2014 to 2018, out of which 38 have been disposed of.

The government has also received 203 complaints from 11 states and Union Territories under the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in the last four years where the inmates escaped from such homes, the Minister added.

Gandhi stated that her ministry has asked the Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories to inspect the facilities by September 15 and submit a report.

According to Section 41 of the Juvenile Justice (J.J.) Act, it is the responsibility of the states to check registration of CCIs whether funded by government or independent.

“The Centre has relentlessly pursued with the state governments to register all CCIs by December last year. As an outcome, 7,109 CCIs are reported to have been registered while 401 are reportedly under process,” the Minister said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday thanked his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the support extended by his party TRS to NDA candidate for the election of Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Nitish Kumar telephoned Rao to convey his thanks for Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)’s support to Harivansh Narayan Singh, an MP of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

Harivansh secured 125 votes as against 105 of opposition nominee B.K. Hariprasad in a House of 244 besides the Chairman.

Nitish Kumar also mentioned that their support would be there in future for Telangana’s development, according to a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office here.

The TRS chief also congratulated Nitish Kumar on the victory of his party candidate in the election for Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman’s post.

On August 7, Nitish Kumar had called up Rao to seek TDP’s support for the NDA candidate.

The Congress on Thursday accused the BJP governments at the Centre and Gujarat of trying to sweep under the carpet the Rs. 4,000-crore groundnut scam in the state and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into it.

“The BJP governments are trying to bury the Rs 4,000-crore groundnut scam in the state,” Congress MP and AICC in-charge of Gujarat Rajeev Satav said at a press conference.

He was accompanied by legislature party leader Paresh Dhanani.

Dhanani alleged the groundnut scam was linked to the Chief Minister’s office.

He said officials of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and Gujarat State Co-Operative Cotton Federation Limited (GUJCOT) along with local politicians and middlemen allegedly stole and sold off the groundnut procured from farmers to oil millers.

“The stocks of groundnut were then adulterated with sand and pebbles to show that there was no loss of weight in the stocks after groundnut was illegally sold off to millers,” Dhanani said.

He also said there have been four instances of fires in the last six months in warehouses where these groundnut stocks were stored.

According to the Congress leaders, in October last year, just ahead of the assembly polls, the Gujarat government announced that it will purchase groundnut from farmers at Rs 4,500 per quintal, even as the existing prices of groundnut at that time was around Rs 3,750 per quintal. He said the state government purchased 10.46 lakh metric tonne of groundnut worth Rs 4,000 crore through 139 purchase centres across the Saurashtra region.

The Centre had appointed NAFED to procure groundnut from farmers of Gujarat at an MSP of Rs. 4,450 a quintal and the State government had announced Rs 50 bonus over and above the MSP.