The Rajya Sabha on Monday witnessed the third adjournment till 3 pm as Opposition parties created ruckus seeking revocation of suspension of 12 MPs from the House.
Soon after the House met at 2 pm following the second adjournment, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge requested the Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh to allow the 12 suspended MPs to join the ongoing functioning of the winter session.
"A total of 12 MPs are outside the House. I request you to call them back in the House," Kharge raised the issue.
All Opposition parties, including Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, TRS, AAP and Left, kept on their protest against the government and most of their members trooped in the Well of the House.
The Deputy Chairman rejected their demand and said, "The matter has already been decided by the Rajya Sabha Chairman. Please discuss this matter separately. Let the House function properly. You (Opposition) had sought time for a short discussion of the price rise issue and now everyone is protesting. Don't you want to participate in the discussion?"
In reverse reply, Kharge mentioned, "the Opposition is ready to participate in discussion but the Chair should first allow all the 12 MPs to join the proceedings of the House by revoking their suspension".
The LOP then asked, "Which kind of democracy is this".
As the ruckus continued, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House till 3 pm.
Earlier, the House faced two back to back adjournments-- first till noon and the second till 2 pm.
The opposition raised the issue to revoke the suspension of 12 MPs a few minutes after the House assembled for the day at 11 am.
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.
Since after their suspension, all the 12 MPs regularly visit the Parliament and keep sitting outside Mahatma Gandhi Statue.
( With inputs from ANI )
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