The second day of the Winter Session of Parliament on Tuesday is expected to be stormy with the Opposition and the Centre on a collision course over the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members.
Due to constant disruptions and adjournments as the Opposition protested over the Pegasus snooping row and the three farm laws, the Monsoon Session of Parliament ended two days earlier than what was scheduled in August.
On the last day of the session, Opposition MPs purportedly climbed on the officials’ table, waved black cloth and threw files when the House began a discussion on farmers’ protest against new reform laws. They also allegedly manhandled the security personnel.
However, the Opposition alleged that their MPs were roughed up by the security personnel.
The MPs suspended under Rule 256 are:
Elamaram Kareem (CPM),Phulo Devi Netam (INC), Chhaya Verma (INC) , Ripun Bora (INC) , Binoy Viswam (CPI) , Rajamani Patel (INC) , Dola Sen (TMC) , Shanta Chhetri (TMC) , Syed Nasir Hussain (INC) , Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena) , Anil Desai (Shiv Sena) , Akhilesh Prasad Singh (INC)
As soon as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved the motion to suspend the MPs, Opposition members rose to protest the move, which led to the House being suspended for the day.
The biggest in the history of the Rajya Sabha — unfortunate and unwarranted, a joint statement issued by 14 opposition parties said their floor leaders will meet on Tuesday to discuss future strategy “to resist authoritarian decisions of the government and defend parliamentary democracy”. The TMC was not a signatory to the statement.
The entire Monsoon session was washed out due to the opposition protests.
The government had accused the Opposition of not only creating unruly scenes in the well of the House but also accused some of them of manhandling a woman marshal in the House.