The Rajya Sabha Suspended 19 Opposition MPs until Friday for “misconduct” by entering the well of the House and raising slogans during the monsoon session of Parliament. After that, the Upper House was adjourned for 60 minutes because the suspended MPs refused to leave and continued their protest against price hikes and inflation.
The MPs who have been suspended are TMC’s Sushmita Dev, Santanu Sen and Dola Sen, apart from Mausam Noor, Shanta Chhetri, Abhi Ranjan Biswar, Md Nadimul Haque, M Hamamed Abdulla, B Ligaiah Yadav, A A rahim, Ravihandra Vaddiraju, S Kalyanasundaram, R Girranjan, N R Elango, V Sivadasan, M Shanmugam, Damodar Rao Divakonda, Sandosh Kumar P and Kanimozhi NVN Somu.
TMC leader Derek O’Brien responded, saying, “Modi and Shah have suspended democracy…what are you talking about MPs?”
The Opposition caused a commotion in the Rajya Sabha by raising “rollback GST” slogans. “I’d like to inform the members who are raising slogans and clapping while standing in the House well that this is against the rules. Please return to your seats. The entire nation sees that you are not allowing the House to function,” Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said.
Piyush Goyal, the Rajya Sabha Leader, stated that the decision to suspend the opposition MPs was “taken with a heavy heart, as they [the MPs] repeatedly ignored the chairman’s appeals.”
He added that the government was ready to debate price rise once “ finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recovers and returns to Parliament.”
This is the first time in several years that action has been taken against so many parliamentarians. In January 2019, the then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 45 Members of the TDP and AIADMK for disrupting proceedings for days.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament has been characterized by disruptions and adjournments. Since the Monsson Session began on July 18, both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have failed to complete any significant business.
In the midst of a commotion caused by 19 suspended MPs, the Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day and will reconvene at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
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