New Delhi, November 29:
On the very first day of the Winter Session of the Parliament, 12 Opposition MPs were suspended from the Rajya Sabha through a motion brought in by the government. The motion was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi and passed by voice vote, even as the Opposition protested. The members will remain suspended for the rest of the current session.
The action was taken due to their “unruly” conduct during the Monsoon Session in August. The MPs include six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM – Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and Binoy Viswam of CPI.
Reading out the motion Joshi said, “This House takes cognizance and strongly condemns the utter disregard to the authority of the Chair, complete abuse of the rules of the House persistently, thereby wilfully obstructing the business of the House through their unprecedented acts of misconduct, contemptuous, unruly and violent behaviour and intentional attacks on security personnel on the last day of the 254th session… there by lowering the dignity of an bringing disrepute to this august House.”
A view of the Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi. (RSTV/PTI)
On the very first day of the Winter Session of the Parliament, 12 Opposition MPs were suspended from the Rajya Sabha through a motion brought in by the government. The motion was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi and passed by voice vote, even as the Opposition protested. The members will remain suspended for the rest of the current session.
The action was taken due to their “unruly” conduct during the Monsoon Session in August. The MPs include six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM – Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and Binoy Viswam of CPI.
Reading out the motion Joshi said, “This House takes cognizance and strongly condemns the utter disregard to the authority of the Chair, complete abuse of the rules of the House persistently, thereby wilfully obstructing the business of the House through their unprecedented acts of misconduct, contemptuous, unruly and violent behaviour and intentional attacks on security personnel on the last day of the 254th session… there by lowering the dignity of an bringing disrepute to this august House.”
The members had been suspended under Rule 256 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Rajya Sabha.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Opposition parties unitedly condemned the “unwarranted and undemocratic suspension” of the 12 members and said this was done in “violation of all the Rules of Procedure of Rajya Sabha”.
The last day of the Monsoon Session had witnessed chaotic scenes with marshals being called in as Opposition members had protested over various issues. The government had accused the Opposition of not only creating unruly scenes in the well of the House, but also accused some of them of manhandling a woman marshal in the House.
The Opposition had alleged that additional people were called in and some leaders attacked.
Immediately after the session was adjourned sine die on August 11, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu had considered several options to take action against the leaders. A delegation of seven ministers had submitted a memorandum to him demanding action against some Opposition members for “unprecedented, extreme and violent acts in the House.” These were Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupender Yadav, Arjun Ram Meghwal and V Muraleedharan. Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh was also present during the meeting.
Among the options that Naidu had considered included setting up a special committee to look into the incident and recommend action, allowing either the Privileges Committee or the Ethics Committee of the Rajya Sabha to take up the matter.
The Vice President had consulted former and serving senior officials of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to look at what the precedent allows, and what kind of a committee can recommend action.
Naidu had also met panel Vice Chairman Sasmit Patra of the BJD, who was in the Chair when the alleged incidents took place in the Rajya Sabha on August 11.
CPI leader Binoy Viswam had also written to the Rajya Sabha Secretary-General, stating that the government had leaked CCTV footage of Rajya Sabha selectively, which is privileged property of the House. He had demanded a fair probe into the issue, as, he claimed, outsiders were brought into the House and he was manhandled by them.
