Trinamool Congress MP Shantanu Sen was on Friday suspended for the remaining part of the monsoon session of Parliament, even as the Rajya Sabha failed to function for the fourth day in a row.
Mr. Sen’s suspension comes a day after he snatched and tore the statement on Pegasus which the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw was reading.
The motion seeking his suspension was moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V. Muralidharan and passed by voice vote.
The Opposition parties protested against the move, saying they were not given an opportunity to respond.
TMC members Derek O’Brien and Sukendu Sekhar Roy wanted the member concerned given an opportunity to speak. Mr. O’Brien said that after the House was adjourned on Thursday, Mr. Sen was roughed up. “We saw boorish behaviour and hooliganism in this House,” he added.
In response, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said this issue was not brought to his notice.
Congress Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh asked Mr. Naidu to allow for a clarification on the statement made by Mr. Vaishnaw.
Continues to sit in House
Mr. Sen was asked to leave the House by Mr. Naidu, but he continued to sit in his seat. The House was adjourned till noon. The House was adjourned thrice at 12 and 12:30 p.m. since despite multiple pleas from the Deputy Chairman, Mr. Sen did not leave. He, in fact, remained seated even after the adjournments.
Mr. Sen’s picture was circulated to all entry gates of the House, with directions to the marshals that he should not be allowed inside. The convention dictates that no business can be transacted till the suspended member is removed from the House.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Naidu berated House members for disruptions in the past three days. “The moot question is who would benefit from a dysfunctional Parliament? Certainly, not the country and its people,” he stated. The only business that had been transacted in the last three days, he pointed out, was a debate on COVID-19.
“The proceedings of the House hit a new low with the papers being snatched from the Minister and torn into pieces and thrown into the air. Such actions are a clear assault on our parliamentary democracy,” he added.