Venkaiah rejects demand to revoke suspension of 12 MPs, Oppn walks out of RS
   Date :01-Dec-2021

Venkaiah_1  H x
 Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu conducts proceedings
in the House during the Winter Session of Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday. (RSTV/PTI)
 
NEW DELHI ;
 
Naidu said he was not considering appeal by the Leader of the Opposition and Cong leader M Mallikarjun Kharge as suspended MPs have not shown any remorse, but on the contrary, justified their acts
 
 
MEMBERS of Congress and other Opposition party on Tuesday staged a walkout from Rajya Sabha after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu justified the suspension of 12 MPs for the entire Winter Session of Parliament, saying they haven’t shown any remorse for their act of sacrilege of the House in the previous session in August. “Motion (for suspension of the 12 Opposition MPs) was moved, it was approved, action is taken, it is final,” Naidu said as he rejected an appeal by the Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge to revoke the suspension. Naidu said he was not considering Kharge’s appeal as the suspended MPs have not shown any remorse, but on the contrary, justified their acts.
 
“You try to mislead the House, you disturb the House, you ransacked the table, you also threw papers on the chair and also some of them have got on to the table and then you are giving me lessons. This is not the way,” he said. “I don’t think the appeal of the Leader of the Opposition is worth considering. I am not considering it at all,” he added. Raising the issue when the House met for the day, Kharge said the motion for suspension moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi was in gross violation of the rules and action was taken in the current Winter Session of Parliament for alleged “unruly” conduct in the last session. Also, the rules require the chair to name the members before a motion of suspension is moved, which did not happen when the 12 MPs were suspended on a Government motion on November 29, he said, adding that the chair had on Monday not even allowed him to raise of point of order, which according to the well-settled conventions of Rajya Sabha is always permitted. A member named by the chair has to withdraw from the proceedings of the House. Six of the suspended MPs are from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM.
 
Naidu also rejected Kharge’s contentions of action being taken on deeds done in the last session, saying the Rajya Sabha is a “continuing institution” and the Chairman of the House is empowered to suspend members for unruly conduct under rules 256, 259, 266 and other residuary powers. He said the chair had on August 10, when the Opposition members created a ruckus in the House demanding discussion on certain issues, named the members. “Chairman can take action and also the House can take action. What happened yesterday (November 29) is not chairman taking action, it is the house, after a resolution moved, that has taken action,” he said. Naidu did not address Kharge’s charge of him not being allowed to raise the point of order when the motion of suspension was moved on November 29. Not satisfied with Naidu’s ruling, the Opposition parties, including the Congress, AAP, RJD and Left parties protested, raising slogans. Naidu, however, did not allow them and went on to take up listed zero hour. The Opposition MPs then staged a walkout from the House. He said it’s a “really unfortunate situation that as a chairman, I’m not happy to take action on anybody for that matter, comment on anybody, but at the same time, I have a sacred duty to see that the House is run. At the end of the day, people are going to question the chair and the house, not the individuals and I am answerable to that.”
 
“That’s why time and again I’m appealing,” he said. TMC members too staged a walkout a short while later after their 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. Kharge said the suspension of any member can happen only when two conditions -- him or her being named by the chairman and then a motion being moved -- are fulfilled. He was referring to the leaders of 16 Opposition parties meeting Naidu earlier in the day. RS adjourned for day in absence of Oppn: PROCEEDINGS of the Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day on Tuesday as the Opposition parties had staged a walkout in the morning and the Government wanted a discussion on the Dam Safety Bill, 2019. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi urged Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was in the Chair to discuss the Bill on Wednesday as the Government wants the Opposition parties to participate in it. “As far as I know, they (Opposition parties) have walked out for the day... if they are coming tomorrow we can take up this bill tomorrow. We want to run the House with Opposition and (through) discussion. Our party is the most democratic.
 
Our leader is also very democratic,” he said. Since The Dam Safety Bill, 2019, was the only legislative business in the afternoon, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House for the day. Earlier, when the House resumed after lunch on Tuesday afternoon, Leader of House Piyush Goyal explained the suspension of the 12 members from the House on Monday, saying a resolution is passed for the purpose. The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha also reiterated the chairman’s direction about the discussion on the issue in the presence of the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the House. Lok Sabha adjourned: SOON after the proceedings of the Lok Sabha resumed after the adjournment at 3 pm on Tuesday, the Lower House was again adjourned till am on Wednesday. The Lower House has been adjourned for the third time in the day. Soon after the Parliament’s winter session commenced on Tuesday, it was adjourned till 2 pm following a walkout staged by the Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and National Conference. The Winter Session of the Parliament commenced on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on December 23.