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HomePoliticsFunny side up: Parliament is serious business, but Rajya Sabha MPs left...

Funny side up: Parliament is serious business, but Rajya Sabha MPs left us in splits

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Featuring Union MoS and former diplomat Hardeep Puri, BJP’s La Ganesan, and Congress’s Jairam Ramesh getting two raps from the chair.

This week’s Rajya Sabha sittings saw debates on various contentious issues and bills. However, amid the heated debates and discussions, speakers still found a way to make quips at each other and at ministers—some veiled and some not-so-veiled. Here are some of the most memorable ones:


While the Repealing and Amending Bill was being discussed, BJP’s La Ganesan took a potshot at Congress MP M.V. Rajeev Gowda’s speech, wherein he proposed amendments to the bill, requesting that more laws be added under its purview.

“In Tamil Nadu, the day before Pongal is celebrated as Bogi. In Bogi, all things in the house that are unused, unnecessary and irrelevant are collected and burnt in a bonfire,” Ganesan said.

“So, my suggestion is, instead of doing it once in three years or once in four years, the government could have a permanent arrangement where, at the end of every year, they collect all unnecessary, irrelevant and redundant laws and do away with them. They can form a committee permanently and Bogi can be celebrated in this way by repealing those unnecessary laws and regulations.”


Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science & Technology, cited vehicles as a major contributor to pollution in Delhi during another discussion. He suggested that the promotion of public transport was a necessary to curb vehicular pollution.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh responded: “Sir, we do not have to be told to use public transport.”

Vardhan still felt that the House was not being receptive about the issue. The Chair then took a shot at Ramesh for not listening to Vardhan.

“Yes, Mr Jairam himself is polluting,” the Chair remarked.


Various lawmakers also addressed the ongoing tussle between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal during the discussion of a bill to protect unauthorised colonies in Delhi.

Kejriwal has blamed the L-G for trying to block its executive functions on various occasions, even taking the matter to the Supreme Court. He took to Twitter to voice his discontent after Baijal rejected AAP’s proposal for the home delivery of public service documents.

In the Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien suggested that Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, take initiative to sort out the friction between the L-G and the CM.

Puri, a former diplomat, quipped: “In four decades of public life, I have faced many challenges. I tried to negotiate with terrorists. This is going to be a difficult one, but I accept your challenge and I will try and negotiate.”


Jairam Ramesh was also reprimanded various times during the debate on an amendment to the Forest Act for exceeding the time allotted.

Once Ramesh had concluded his speech, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien returned to the chair. Ramesh welcomed him back, and Kurien responded with a quip of his own.

“I had not gone anywhere. That is why you got more time today. If I were there, I would have curtailed your time,” he said.

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