Opposition tears bills in Rajya Sabha, Gaming Bill passed without debate

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha witnessed stormy scenes on the last day of the monsoon session with the Opposition tearing copies of the constitutional amendment bills on ministers having to resign if they are imprisoned for 30 days and displaying placards against home minister Amit Shah. Passage of the Online Gaming Bill amid the din marked the culmination of a session that saw only 38.88% productivity.

The day’s proceedings on Thursday began with protests by the Opposition which demanded a discussion on the special intensive revision (SIR), leading to adjournment till post-lunch. When the House met at 2 pm, Amit Shah moved the motion to refer the three Constitutional amendment bills to a joint committee of the two Houses and nominating 10 members from Rajya Sabha to it.

The three Bills –– The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment Bill, 2025; the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 –– were moved in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday amid violent protests by the Opposition, especially the Congress and TMC. Similar scenes were repeated in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The joint committee will have 21 members from the Lok Sabha.


When Shah rose to announce that the House will nominate ten members to the joint committee, Opposition members Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari, Randeep Surjewala, Digvijay Singh (all Congress), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and members of TMC, Left Parties, tore copies of the three bills. TMC members walked into the Well of the House with placards and shouted slogans against Shah. The motion was adopted by a voice vote.

Marshals were positioned to prevent the protesting members from getting close to the Treasury Benches and the Chair.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh immediately invited electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to move the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 for discussion and passage. Though this Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday in the din, it was not listed in the revised list of business in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The government listed it only after the first adjournment at 11 am in a supplementary list of business.

In his opening remarks, Vaishnaw said online gaming is becoming an addiction among some sections and enumerated some cases where people had lost their hard-earned money. He said at one time chit funds had led to people losing their earnings. Just like e-cigarettes were banned by the Narendra Modi government to stop health loss, gaming will be regulated to help the middle class.

The Online Gaming law will support e-sports and games like Sudoku, Solitaire and the like and an authority will be appointed to promote and regulate them. However, those online games which involve investing money and are becoming a serious addiction will be checked.

Citing examples, Vaishnaw said around 45 crore people are ensnared in online gaming and Rs 20 crore has been lost by those involved in it. Some people have suffered psychological disorders and other sicknesses. He referred to some news reports of gamers committing suicide, losing money meant for treatment of serious illness of a family member and so on. He said money laundering and terror funding have also been done with online gaming money.

“This menace is akin to drug addiction. Many powerful people are behind it. They may go to court to stall this law. I seek everybody’s help in ending this menace,” Vaishnaw said.

John Brittas and V Shivadasan (both CPI-M) had listed amendments but did not move them in protest against the House not discussing SIR and other issues.

The bill was passed without any discussion or reply by the minister.

In his valedictory address before the House was adjourned sine die, Harivansh said, “Despite the best efforts of the Chair to facilitate meaningful and disruption-free discussions on listed business, this session was regrettably marred by repeated adjournments.”

The House functioned for only 41 hours, 15 minutes in the monsoon session and the productivity was a “disappointing” 38.88%.