Congress leader Kharge says MPs suspended to pass Bills in haste

Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has accused the Centre of deliberately suspending 12 MPs so that it can pass the Bills in a hurry.

On Tuesday (December 21), the Rajya Sabha suspended Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien for allegedly throwing the rule book at the Chairman of the House. The resolution to suspend Derek O’ Brien was moved by MoS parliamentary affairs V Muraleedharan. He joined the 12 suspended MPs in protesting on Parliament premises.

Kharge said, “The government wanted to pass the Bills easily so it deliberately suspended the 12 MPs. We had requested the government to revoke the suspension a number of times so that the House could run smoothly but they refused to do so.”

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die on Wednesday (December 22), a day ahead of the scheduled end of the Winter Session of Parliament due to continued disruption. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu lamented that the Upper House functioned much below its potential due to repeated disruptions. The session, which started on November 29, was scheduled to conclude on December 23.

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Naidu said, “I urge all of you to…reflect and introspect if this session could have been different and better. I don’t want to speak elaborately on the course of the session that would lead me to make a very critical view.”

Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal said, “We thought that the opposition would learn some lessons, but the same thing has been repeated.”

Earlier, the Upper House had suspended 12 MPs for the entire winter session for creating a ruckus in the House during the monsoon session on August 11. The suspended 12 MPs are from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI, CPI-M and the Shiv Sena.