Rajya Sabha on Tuesday witnessed an uproar by the Opposition after its 19 MPs got suspended for the entire week for repeatedly disrupting proceedings. The BJP said the decision was taken with a “heavy heart” as the penalized members repeatedly ignored Deputy Chairman Harvansh’s appeals to let the Upper House of Parliament function.
Speaking on the same, Union Minister and Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal told reporters that it is not the central government but the Opposition parties that are not letting the House hold a debate. The BJP leader also said that the Centre is ready for a discussion on inflation once Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman fully recovers from Covid-19 infection and joins the Parliament proceedings.
Appealing to the Opposition to participate in parliamentary proceedings, he said, “India has tackled inflation and price rise better than many countries, and the government is keen to inform Parliament about the important steps it has taken to handle price rise.”
The opposition MPs, who have been protesting since the beginning of the Monsoon session demanded a discussion on price rise and the levy of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on daily essentials, were suspended for disobeying the Deputy Chairman’s requests to let Rajya Sabha function.
Union Minister Goyal also said that Opposition members, including from the Congress, the TMC, and the Left parties, were part of the GST council that took the call unanimously on introducing the fresh levy. “They were equally part of the decision-making process in the council. Now they are making absolutely baseless allegations,” he added.
Union Minister V Muraleedharan today moved a motion to suspend 10 MPs from the sitting of the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of the week for their “misconduct” by showing “utter disregard to the House and authority of the chair”. However, Harivansh read out the names of 19 members when put the motion to voice vote.
When some Opposition members demanded a division of votes, the chair said he would do so if the members returned to their seats. With the MPs refusing to obey the orders, 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.
MPs who got suspended are – Sushmita Dev, Mausam Noor, Shanta Chhetri, Dola Sen, Santanu Sen, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Nadimul Haque from the TMC; DMK’s M Mohamed Abdulla, Kanimozhi NVN Somu, M Shanmugam, S Kalyanasundaram, R Girirajan and NR Elango; B Lingaiah Yadav, Ravichandra Vaddiraju and Damodar Rao Divakonda from TRS; V Sivadasan and AA Rahim from CPI-M; and Santhosh Kumar from CPI.
However, the opposition members continued to protest in the well of the House, following which Kalita adjourned Rajya Sabha proceedings for the day.
(with inputs from PTI)
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