'Needlessly provocative': Shashi Tharoor on BJP's protest in Parliament

"If anything the BJP should have shown solidarity," Tharoor said adding, "My colleagues were unjustly expelled by a party that has institutionalised disruption."

Members of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday staged a protest in Parliament against the "unruly" behaviour of the opposition party leaders in the ongoing winter session. The MPs staged a protest at the same site where leaders of opposition parties were holding a protest against the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor speaks in the Lok Sabha during ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi.(PTI)

Reacting on the same, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "It was needlessly provocative of the BJP MPs to come here and rub salt in the wounds."

"If anything the BJP should have shown solidarity," Tharoor said adding, "My colleagues were unjustly expelled by a party that has institutionalised disruption."

Since the commencement of the winter session of Parliament on Monday, there have been continuous disruptions in the functioning of both Houses due to the protests by the members of opposition parties.

In a move that further fuelled the anger in opposition leaders, 12 MPs of Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha were suspended from the winter session on the very first day on Monday for their 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 -- Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh. It also includes two from Trinamool Congress (Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri), two from Shiv Sena (Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai) and one each from CPI (Binoy Viswam) and CPM (Elamaram Kareem).

The winter session is likely to conclude on December 23.