Venkaiah Naidu suspends 6 TMC Rajya Sabha MPs for the day as ruckus over Pegasus continues

Even as the Parliament continued to witness pandemonium on Wednesday, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu suspended 6 TMC MPs from the Rajya Sabha for the entire day. The Parliamentary Bulletin published by the Rajya Sabha secretariat identified them as Dola Sen, Md. Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor. It stated that these members who entered the well of the Rajya Sabha displaying placards and disobeyed the Chair were asked to withdraw from the House by Naidu. 

At the beginning of the day's proceedings, Jawhar Sircar took oath as an MP and Naidu agreed to take up discussion on the agitation against the farm laws. However, the latter rejected notices by TMC's Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal of Congress and other members pertaining to the Pegasus 'snooping' row under Rule 267. This rule calls for setting aside the business of the day to take up discussion on the issue being raised.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman stated, "Now there is agreement about farmers'' agitation. And also about price rise, economic situation. The government has also expressed willingness to discuss. Let us discuss the farmers'' issues. Let us discuss the economic situation, price rise and other issues." 

But this explanation failed to cut ice with some opposition MPs who then rushed into the Well holding placards. While he initially asked them to return to their seats warning that action can be taken against them, the erring members did not budge. Therefore, Naidu invoked Rule 255 via which the aforesaid 6 TMC parliamentarians were asked to withdraw from the House for the rest of the day. Even after the Upper House proceedings were adjourned, they reportedly did not leave the House. On July 23, TMC MP Santanu Sen was suspended for the remainder of the Monsoon session after he snatched papers from IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while he was reading a statement on the Pegasus controversy.

Parliament logjam

Since the commencement of the Monsoon Session on July 19, Parliament has been marked by sloganeering, leaders rushing to the Well of the House with placards, tearing of papers and repeated adjournments. However, the opposition has pinned the blame for the logjam on the stubborn attitude of the treasury benches. On the other hand, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi dubbed the snooping row a "totally non-serious" issue and affirmed that IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has already given a detailed statement in both the Houses. 

During a breakfast meeting convened by Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, he reportedly called for opposition unity to corner the treasury benches during the ongoing session. Earlier, sources told Republic TV that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has reached out to the opposition leaders in Rajya Sabha for their support in running the House. However, the opposition agreed to cooperate only if the government allows a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row first followed by the repealing of three farm laws and inflation.

(With PTI inputs)