New Delhi, Nov 30, 2021- The TMC has shown a hostile attitude towards the Congress overtures for a joint opposition strategy.
The TMC has charted its own course by skipping the opposition meet for the second time in a row although 16 parties attended the meeting.
On Tuesday the opposition decided to walk out under the leadership of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge after Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu turned down the Opposition’s appeal for revocation of the suspension of 12 MPs, but the TMC stayed back. Its members Luizinho Falerio participated in zero hour as did Derek O’Brien though O’Brien spoke on suspension. He said instead of the opposition MPs, 80 MPs of the treasury benches should be suspended.
Later he tweeted, “Starting tomorrow 1 Dec, from 10 am to 6 pm Mon-Fri- the 12 Opposition MPs suspended from Rajya Sabha will sit in dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue.”
The Congress is going the extra mile to take the opposition along while protesting in the Lok Sabha and stalling the House. On Tuesday morning, the Opposition parties, barring the TMC, assembled at Kharge’s office to chalk out a strategy on the matter and met the Chair but were left disappointed.
Naidu said “I am not considering the appeal of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to revoke suspension of 12 MPs as the suspended MPs have not apologised and are justifying their behaviour.” Kharge had raised the issue under rule 256 saying that the suspension was contrary to the rules of procedure.
“The Members have been suspended over conduct which occurred in the previous session and is against the rules of the House,” the LoP said, adding that the question of apologising does not arise.
In response, the Chairman said that the House has adopted a motion and on the day of occurence, the MPs were named by the Chair.
Justifying their act, Derek O’Brien of the TMC said that the Members were compelled to resort to such behaviour in the Monsoon session as certain issues were not being brought up for discussion despite repeated requests. “Not the 12 Opposition MPs but 80 MPs of treasury should be suspended,” he asserted.
On Monday, 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 MPs are from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI, CPI-M and Shiv Sena.
The members are Syed Naseer Hussain, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora and Rajmani Patel of the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena, Elamaram Kareem of the CPI-M, Binoy Viswam of the CPI, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of the Trinamool. (Agency)
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