Decision to deepen Govt-Opp face-off; call taken with heavy heart: BJP
In a major development that could lead to complete washout of the Monsoon Session, 19 Opposition Rajya Sabha members, including seven from the TMC and six from the DMK, were suspended on Tuesday from attending the sitting of the Rajya Sabha till Friday for disrupting the proceedings of the House.
This was the highest number of MPs suspended in one go. Earlier, 12 Opposition members were suspended in November last year after some of them had climbed on the table and flung papers towards the Chair.
The BJP said the decision to suspend the MPs was taken with a “heavy heart” as the penalised members repeatedly ignored Deputy Chairman Harvansh’s appeals to let the Upper House of Parliament function.
Four Congress Lok Sabha MPs — Manickam Tagore, TN Prathapan, Jothimani and Ramya Haridas — were suspended on Monday for disrupting proceedings, deepening the standoff between the Opposition and the Government.
The Opposition MPs, who stalled the proceedings since the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament last Monday over price rise and the levy of the GST on daily essentials, entered the Well of the House shouting slogans.
The protesting MPs were raising slogans in various languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil and other regional languages. “Modi ji jawab do”; “GST wapas lo”, “Gujarat CM resign karo” were some of the slogans being raised by the Opposition members.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh repeatedly asked the protesting MPs to return to their seats but when they refused, he asked the treasury benches to move a motion for their suspension.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan moved a motion to suspend 10 MPs for the remainder of the week for their “misconduct” by showing “utter disregard to the House and authority of the Chair”.
But when Harivansh put the motion to vote, he read out the names of 19 members. The motion was passes by a voice vote.
When some Opposition MPs demanded a division of votes, the Chair said he would do so if the members returned to their seats and the House was brought to order.
With the MPs refusing to budge, he said it seems they are not interested in the division and declared that the motion has been adopted.
The suspended MPs refused to leave, squatting on the floor of the House, leading to three adjournments — first for 15 minutes by Harivansh, then for an hour and finally, for the day by Bhubaneswar Kalita, who was in the Chair.
While seven of the suspended MPs belonged to the TMC, six were from the DMK, three from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), two from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and one from the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Sushmita Dev, Mausam Noor, Shanta Chhetri, Dola Sen, Santanu Sen, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Nadimul Haque of the TMC were suspended.
DMK’s M Mohamed Abdulla, Kanimozhi NVN Somu, M Shanmugam, S Kalyanasundaram, R Girirajan and N R Elango were also suspended. B Lingaiah Yadav, Ravichandra Vaddiraju and Damodar Rao Divakonda (TRS), V Sivadasan and A A Rahim (CPI-M) and Santosh Kumar (CPI) were the other MPs who were suspended.
Reacting to the suspension of MPs, the TMC lashed out at the Narendra Modi Government, alleging Parliament has been turned into a “deep, dark chamber”.
“Democracy has been suspended in India. Parliament has been turned into a deep, dark chamber,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien told reporters here.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid of Parliament. I ask him to come and answer one question in Parliament,” said O’Brien, the leader of the TMC in Rajya Sabha.
Members of the AAP and the TMC entered the well, holding placards and raising slogans against the Government. Opposition MPs have been demanding an urgent discussion under Rule 267, by suspending other business, on price rise and the GST hike for the past many days, leading to disruptions in the House.
Earlier, in the morning Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who was presiding, had adjourned the House till noon without transacting any business as the Opposition parties sought to raise the hooch tragedy in the “dry State” of Gujarat as well as the issue of price rise.