As many as 12 Rajya Sabha MPs of opposition parties were suspended yesterday for the rest of the winter session of Parliament for their misconduct and unruly behaviour during the last session.
Out of 12 suspensions, six were from Congress which included Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh.
Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of TMC, Elamaram Kareem from CPM and Binoy Viswam from CPI were the other members suspended for the rest of the session.
It should be recalled that Rajya Sabha witnessed major ruckus during the Monsoon Session of Parliament earlier this year when opposition members protested the three farm bills.
‘PM doing just as he wishes’
Reacting to the suspension, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “From District Court to Supreme Court, an accused is heard even there, lawyers are provided for them too, sometimes govt officials are sent to take their version. Here our version wasn’t taken.”
Talking about the Monsoon Session ruckus, she said, “If you see the CCTV footage it has been recorded how male marshals were jostling female MPs. All of this on one side and your decision on the other? What kind of unparliamentary behaviour is this?”
Congress MP Chhaya Verma slammed the Central government over the suspension of Rajya Sabha MPs saying, “This suspension is simply unfair and unjust. There were other members from other parties who created a ruckus but the chairman suspended me. PM Modi is doing just as he wishes since he enjoys a brute majority.”
Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora called the suspension “totally undemocratic, murder of democracy and Constitution.”
“We have not been given the opportunity to be heard. This is a one-sided, biased, vindictive decision. Opposition parties haven’t been consulted,” he said.
Bora went on to add, “Yes, we had protested in the last session. We had protested for the cause of farmers, the poor people and as Parliamentarians, it is our duty to raise the voices of the oppressed, deprived. If we don’t raise the voices in Parliament, where will we do that?”
It was reported that Opposition parties have called a meeting on the next course of action, over the suspensions at Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge’s office .
In the statement, the opposition confirmed that floor leaders of Opposition parties of Rajya Sabha will meet tomorrow to deliberate on the future course of action to resist the authoritarian decision of the government and defend Parliamentary democracy.
