By PTI
NEW DELHI: Leaders of 16 opposition parties on Tuesday met Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and urged him to revoke the suspension of 12 opposition MPs from the Upper House.
A day after the 12 MPs were suspended, Opposition leaders held a meeting in the chamber of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
According to sources, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was also present at the meeting.
The Trinamool Congress did not participate in the opposition meeting even though two of its MPs have also been suspended for the remainder of the Winter session.
The opposition leaders led by Kharge later met Naidu and urged him to revoke the suspension of the members, the sources said.
Leaders of some parties also contemplated boycotting the House but some members did not agree to this suggestion, the sources said.
However, Naidu turned down the appeals.
“The bitter experience of the last Monsoon Session still continues to haunt most of us. I was expecting and waiting for the leading lights of the House to take lead in expressing outrage over what happened in the last Session,” said Naidu during the discussion in the Upper House.
“Such assurance would have helped me in handling the matter appropriately but unfortunately it will not be,” he added.
Leaders of the DMK, NCP, Shiv Sena, CPI and CPI-M, RJD, TRS, IUML, RSP, MDMK, LJD, NC, Kerala Congress, VCK and AAP, besides that of the Congress were present at the meeting.
Twelve opposition MPs were on Monday suspended for the remainder of the session for their unruly behaviour and misconduct during the last day of the Monsoon session on August 11, after the government moved a motion in this regard.
Leaders of 12 opposition parties had on Monday condemned the government for bringing the motion that led to the suspension of the 12 members.
The opposition leaders termed the suspension “unwarranted and undemocratic”, and alleged that the action was in violation of all rules and procedures of the Upper House.
The suspended MPs are — six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM.
The motion to suspend Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and Binoy Viswam of CPI was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi.
Meanwhile, for the second straight day, Lok Sabha proceedings were disrupted on Tuesday and the House was adjourned till 2 pm amid Opposition protests over various issues.
Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said they staged a walkout from the Lower House to show support to the 12 MPs who have been suspended and termed the suspension as a “retrospective effect”.
“We have staged a walkout from Lok Sabha to support the 12 Opposition members of Rajya Sabha who have been suspended. The action of suspension from the current winter session points at a ‘retrospective effect’. Why should an apology be issued?” Chowdhury said while speaking to media persons.
He further alleged that the government is using suspension as a “threat” to silence the Opposition.
Despite repeated pleas of Speaker Om Birla, members of the TRS shouted slogans and displayed placards standing in the Well of the House while other Opposition members, including from Congress and Left parties, sought to raise certain issues from their seats.
In signs of deepening rift between the government and the Opposition, members from the Congress, NCP, Left parties and DMK walked out of the House alleging that the government was suppressing the voice of the Opposition.
These members protested from their seats and did not come into the Well before walking out of the House.
However, Trinamool Congress members neither joined the protests nor walked out.
Soon after a new member took oath and the first question of the Question Hour was taken up, members of TRS trooped into the Well demanding a law on Minimum Support Price (MSP) as well as compensation for the families of farmers who lost their lives during the agitation against the farm laws.
Appealing to the members to go back to their seats, Birla said they should discuss issues during the Question Hour and that their conduct was not sending out the right message.
A visibly anguished Birla said that important questions were being answered but the proceedings were being disrupted.
It is not right, the Speaker repeatedly asserted but as the din continued, he adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
Earlier, Shiv Sena’s Delkar Kalaben Mohanbhai, representing Dadra and Nagar Haveli constituency, took oath.
At Rajya Sabha, Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge said the motion for suspension moved by the government was in gross violation of procedure with the chair not even allowing his point of order over the issue.
He urged the chairman to set aside the suspension.
Naidu, however, said the suspension was done by the House and not by the chairman.
The suspended members, he said, have shown no remorse and have instead justified their actions.
“I don’t think the appeal of Leader of Opposition is worth considering,” he added.
The Congress, AAP, RJD and Left parties protested raising slogan, but Naidu did not allow it.
They then staged a walkout from the House.
TMC members staged a walkout a short while later when its leader Derek O’Brien said it’s not the opposition but the 80 MPs of the treasury benches who should be suspended as they blocked certain discussions during the previous monsoon session.
The suspended MPs include six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM.
(With ANI Inputs)
