Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday suspended six TMC MPs for the day for carrying placards while protesting along with other Opposition MPs over the Pegasus spying issue.
Soon after the Rajya Sabha assembled for the day, slogan-shouting TMC and other Opposition MPs trooped into the Well of the House, some holding placards, to demand a discussion on the issue of Israeli-made Pegasus spyware allegedly being used to snoop on Opposition leaders, Government critics and journalists. The Chairman first asked members to go back to their seats and then threatened to invoke rule 255 against those holding placards. As the members refused to budge, he ordered that those “not obeying the Chair and raising placards shall leave the House under rule 255.”
He, however, did not name anyone and said Rajya Sabha Secretariat will give the list. Later a Parliamentary Bulletin identified the six MPs suspended for the day as Dola Sen, Md. Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor.