Opposition accuses BJP of mpulating ballot paper during voting on RTI Bill

Opposition on Thursday accused the BJP of mpulating ballot papers during the voting on the Right to Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Rajya Sabha.

The Bill was passed by voice vote after witnessing chaos and pandemonium after the house rejected opposition's demand to refer it to Select Committee.

As the voting process was going on, some of the members from the treasury benches were seen instructing other members.

Soon after opposition members angrily rushed towards them. They were having some arguments with C M Ramesh, who recently quit TDP to join the BJP.

As the confrontation took ugly shape with some of the opposition members objecting Ramesh's act, Deputy Chairman Harivansh asked him to go back to his seat.

The opposition members trooped into the well and started sloganeering against the government.

Miffed with the behaviour of Ramesh and other BJP members, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad accused the treasury benches of intimidating the opposition members.

"The House has just now witnessed how the members are being intimidated. It is a sample of how the BJP won 303 seats," he said.

The senior Congress leader alleged that the ruling party members get signatures from members who do not understand the process.

"Don't make the parliament a government department. They are killing democracy. We don't have any faith on this government," he said and then the Congress and other opposition members staged a walkout.

After the Bill was passed, Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien took on twitter to attack the government, saying the Right to Information became "Right to Intimidation".

"In the larger interest of democracy, Rajya Sabha TV should air all footage of what transpired in the House today while voting to send the RTI Bill to a Parliament committee. RTI Right to Information became RTI Right to Intimidation. Did the same tactics get BJP 303 seats," he said.

"On voting in RS today on RTI Bill. BJP MP caught red-handed trying to mpulate; had multiple ballot papers with him. He was influencing MPs distributing and collecting ballot papers Shame Appeal to Rajya Sabha TV to share video footage recorded on multi-cameras," he said without taking Ramesh's name.

Later talking to reporters outside parliament, Azad said the opposition parties would raise the issue when the Rajya Sabha meets on Friday.

Responding to the allegations, Ramesh said that the opposition parties didn't have the numbers and that's why they were "putting blame" on him.

The BJP rejected the allegations as "baseless

"Opposition including the Congress walked out of Rajya Sabha on RTI bill because they lacked the numbers. Only 75 MPs voted to send the bill to Select Committee. Leader of Opposition's Ghulam Nabi Azad silly and baseless accusations questioning today's vote and 2019 mandate show them as bad and arrogant losers," BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao tweeted.

The Bill seeks to empower the Centre to make rules to decide the tenure, salary, allowances and other terms of service of Information Commissioners of the Central Information Commission and also of State Information Commissions.

( With inputs from ANI )