New Delhi [India], February 4 : BJP MP Kiran Choudhary on Wednesday criticised the Opposition for repeatedly disrupting parliamentary proceedings, describing it as "childish behaviour", saying such conduct exposes a lack of seriousness.
Speaking toon the floor disruptions, Choudhary said that the advisory committee decides the subjects for discussion in consultation with all parties, including topics suggested by the Opposition, and the government generally agrees to debate them with fixed time slots.
"When the advisory committee completely decides which topics will be discussed, and the opposition also suggests topics, and the government agrees to discuss all of them, despite this, they engage in such antics inside the House," she said, adding that the public has understood what she described as "childish behaviour."
Choudhary said suspension of MPs is always a last resort. "When the situation reaches such a level that members start speaking nonsense, enter the well of the House and create scenes never seen before in parliamentary history, action becomes inevitable," she said. Accusing Opposition MPs of disrupting proceedings to "grab eyeballs," she added that such behaviour shows they have no substantive issues to raise.
This comes after eight opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha for the remainder of the budget session for violating rules and "throwing papers on the chair" following an uproar in the House over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's insistence on mentioning a specific reference to the 2020 border tensions with China in eastern Ladakh.
The House, which witnessed two adjournments earlier in the day, resumed proceedings at 3 pm, and Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, said that he would not refer to any magazine article about former Army Chief Gen MM Naravane's memoirs but would briefly speak about Chinese action during the Kailash Range standoff.
The government has said that Rahul Gandhi cannot quote from an unpublished memoir or a magazine article based on it. TDP MP, Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the Chair, asked Rahul Gandhi to resume his speech on the motion of thanks to the President's Address and follow the ruling already given by Speaker Om Birla. As Rahul Gandhi insisted on making his intended remarks, the Chair called other members to speak on the motion of thanks to the President's Address.
Congress and opposition members resorted to sloganeering, which intensified after a TDP member started making his speech. Amid uproar, some members were seen throwing papers.
The House was adjourned till 3 pm. When the House resumed its proceedings, BJP member Dilip Saikia, who was in the Chair, named eight opposition members. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju moved a motion to suspend the eight members for the remainder of the budget session for "violating rules and throwing papers on the chair".
The motion was adopted by the House amid protests from the opposition members. The opposition MPs who have been suspended for the remainder of the session are Congress members Hibi Eden, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Prashant Yadaorao Padole, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy, and Dean Kuriakose, and CPI-M member S Venkatesan.
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