Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon amid opposition uproar on suspension of 12 MPs

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday adjourned till noon following the ruckus created by Opposition parties over the suspension of 12 MPs. The joint Opposition including Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Left and AAP came into the Well of the House soon after the papers were laid on the table seeking revocation of suspension of […]

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday adjourned till noon following the ruckus created by Opposition parties over the suspension of 12 MPs.

The joint Opposition including Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Left and AAP came into the Well of the House soon after the papers were laid on the table seeking revocation of suspension of MPs.

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Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue requesting Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu to revoke the suspension and “call all suspended MPs back in the House”.

Naidu rejected his points and asked him to sit and led the House to conduct Zero Hour.
“Everyday, you raise the same issue. You are compounding the offence. You (Opposition) are not letting the House function for the last 10 days. You cannot force me,” Naidu said.
The Chairman then started Zero Hour.

The ruckus continued and several MPs started sloganeering “dictatorship will not go on in the democracy”, “revoke suspension of MPs”. They also showed placards that read “Suspend Us”.

Amid the din, the Chairman again tried to persuade the Opposition leaders to go back to their seats and let the House function.

“MSP, farmers, COVID-19 are among many issues being raised in Zero Hour but you are not interested to discuss on those issues. You are only creating disturbance,” VP Naidu said.

As the din continued during Zero Hour, the Chairman announced to adjourn the House till 12 noon.

In a move that angered the Opposition and set the stage for acrimonious exchanges, a dozen members of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha were suspended from the winter session on the very first day on Monday following a motion brought in by the government.

The members were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August when marshals were called after Opposition members stormed the Well of the House during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021.

The suspended members comprise 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 Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI.