Suspended MPs on sit-in protest, refuse tea from Rajya Sabha deputy chairman
Sep 22, 2020
By Ashoke Raj
New Delhi [India], September 22 : Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh arrived this with morning tea for the eight opposition members who had spent the night on the lawns of Parliament as part of their indefinite protest after being suspended yesterday over unruly scenes against farm bills inside the Upper House. However, the suspended MPs refused to take tea from Harivansh.
The members, including Trinamool Congress's Derek O'Brien, Aam Aadmi Party's Sanjay Singh, Congress's Rajeev Satav and CPM's KK Ragesh slept on the parliament lawns, near Mahatma Gandhi's statue, where they had spread out sheets and sat holding up placards.
One of the eight suspended MPs, Ripun Bora of Congress told ANI, "Harivansh Ji said he came to meet us as a colleague and not as Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha. He also brought some tea and snacks for us. We started this sit-in demonstration yesterday from 12 noon as a protest against our suspension. We are protesting for farmers issues and there will be no compromise on farmers' interest"
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, "We are here doing dharna not a tea party and we all respect deputy chairman but after dharna we all MPs will invite him for tea at our place."
The MPS were earlier suspended by Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for "unruly behaviour" with deputy chairman Harivansh Singh.
On Monday, Venkaiah Naidu announced the one-week suspension of the MPs, including TMC's Dola Sen, Congress' Ripun Bora and Syed Nasir Hussain and CPM's Elamaram Karim for "unruly behaviour" with the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman on Sunday during the passage of the farm bills.
On Sunday Opposition members stormed the well and reached the deputy chairman's seat to protest against the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and passed by the Upper House through voice vote.
Both the Bills were earlier passed by Lok Sabha through voice votes.
