CISF or Parliament “marshals”? They can be both

Last week leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to deputy chairperson Harivansh complaining about central industrial security force (CISF) personnel “blocking” MPs from protesting in the well of the House.

The furore over CISF personnel was about both the presence of the security service in the House as well as the physical obstruction of Opposition MPs. The incident has a backstory that needs to be told. To begin with were the personnel CISF or marshals? The Opposition says they were stopped by the CISF and this is unacceptable.

Government sources said the personnel were indeed marshals. There is, averred a government functionary, no difference between CISF personnel and marshals. How so? The answer is that personnel deployed outside the chambers are, as is evident, CISF and when inside the House they are marshals. There is no separate watch and ward staff as was the case earlier. The security of Parliament in toto is in the hands of the CISF.

But why did CISF/marshals intervene in Rajya Sabha last Friday? The reasons lie in the increasingly aggressive protests by the INDIA bloc parties. Aware that protestors in the well of the House are not visible in television in the new Parliament building where the presiding officer’s chair is at a height, Opposition MPs have taken to standing before treasury bench members called to speak. They also hold up placards.

So, when a Trinamool MP stood before a NDA member last week, a decision was taken to prevent the Opposition from doing so in future. The instructions, sources said, were to keep the Opposition to its side of the House and not allow MPs from deliberately obscuring NDA speakers. The CISF, it would appear, overinterpreted its mandate and stopped INDIA bloc MPs from entering the well itself. This will be corrected, sources said.

The matter, it is understood, has been sorted out. “We are not bothered what they do on their side of the House. They must not cross over to our part. As MPs, the opposition members have a right to protest. But they cannot deprive other MPs of their rights either,” said a source.

The MP who’s action seems to be the trigger for the “marshalling” of the Opposition was in the news when the Rajya Sabha chamber saw physical clashes during the passage of the three now-scrapped farm laws and was seen to have played a leading role in the melee on that day in the winter session of 2020.

A government source said the Opposition had complained about security in Parliament after an intrusion in December, 2023, when two persons jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber and released coloured sprays.

I.N.D.I.A.Indian ParliamentMallikarjun KhargeMPsNDARajya Sabha