Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day; chairman suspends six protesting MPs for the day

Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day amid ruckus by Opposition parties. Six Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs were suspended by Rajya Sabha Chairman for the entire day for raising slogans and holding placards in the Well of the House. The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021 were passed amid the continuous din.

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day amid ruckus by Opposition parties. The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021 were passed amid the continuous din.

House Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu suspended six Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs from the entire session of the day as they swelled the Well of the House raising slogans and holding placards. Dola Sen, Md. Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh, Mausam Noor were among those suspended MPs."Disobeying the chair and raising placards shall leave the House under Rule 255," Naidu said. He ordered the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to give a list of the names of protesting MPs.

The Chairman did not admit the notices given by Ramgopal Yadav and Vishambhar Prasad Nishad of the Samajwadi Party and V Sivadasan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) citing Rule 267. These notices were to initiate a discussion on farm laws. Jawhar Sircar, the new member, took oath. "I have gone through it. It is an ongoing issue but important. So it is admitted for discussion under other provision," Naidu said.

"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," said Naidu while rejecting notices by MPs demanding discussion on the Pegasus row. The notices were submitted by Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC), Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal (both Congress), CPI(M)'s Elamaram Kareem, and V Sivadasan and Binoy Viswam of the CPI.

Opposition parties have been pressing on the Pegasus snoop gate, farm laws and Covid-19 crisis since the commencement of the Monsoon Session. Vociferous sessions kicked off after Union Minister of IT Ashwini Vaishnaw's statement that the media report on Pegasus row was an attempt to malign Indian democracy. The session commenced on July 19 and is scheduled to end on August 13.