Parliament winter session: MPs’ suspension continues to rock House proceedings
Fierce protests against the suspension of MPs continued to rock the Rajya Sabha in the ongoing winter session of Parliament for the third consecutive day on Wednesday.
Fierce protests continued to rock the Rajya Sabha in the ongoing winter session of Parliament for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, even as the Lok Sabha returned to partial normalcy by allowing the passage of The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020.
Proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were disrupted amid unrelenting protests by opposition members over the issue of suspension of 12 MPs due to their “unruly” behaviour in the Monsoon Session. The suspended MPs, meanwhile, held sit-in protests near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the premises of Parliament.
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Opposition members demanded that the House take up the issue of suspension even as chairman Venkaiah Naidu reiterated that the MPs had “not expressed remorse” for the “sacrilege”.
“It is sacrilege of the House, I have said (on the conduct of the 12 suspended MPs during the last session in August). There is no remorse by members who have really insulted the parliamentary system,” Naidu said.
“…Coming to the well of the House, climbing on the table, throwing papers, snatching papers from the minister and also challenging the Chair... doing everything which is unparliamentary, undemocratic and they have no remorse. What can we do?” he added.
Amid the protests, opposition members did not allow Union minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who was moving The Dam Safety Bill, 2019 for consideration in the House, to complete his speech.
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Congress leaders wanted leader of opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge be allowed to speak on the suspension of the legislators.
The protesting opposition members trooped into the well of the House and continued their sloganeering.
The House was adjourned twice in the first half before getting adjourned for the day a little after 3 pm after Shekhawat introduced the Dam Safety Bill.
“The government has not reached out to us. They have not initiated any dialogue,” Communist Party of India’s Binoy Visam, who is among the suspended MPs, said.
Opposition members, who are united against the suspension of the MPs, asserted that the government will have to break the deadlock.
“There has been no response to the letter that the LoP (Mallikarjun Kharge) wrote to the chairman on the suspension. There is no effort from the government’s side to break the deadlock,” Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Tiruchi Siva said.
In the Lok Sabha, proceedings were adjourned till noon on Wednesday amid continuous protests by members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) over farmer issues.
The Question House was disrupted after TRS leaders shouted slogans and displayed placards over low procurement of the state’s farm produce by the Centre, in the Well of the House.
Speaker Om Birla told the protesting members it was not the right thing to do and emphasised that the Question Hour was important.
“When a senior member is speaking, you (people) are protesting... what kind of practice are you trying to bring into the House?”
“Your behaviour in the House is not right, it is wrong and the House cannot run like this... I had given you time to raise the issue,” Birla added.
Later in the day, as normalcy returned for a brief period, the Lower House passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020.