New Delhi [India]: Opposition parties including Congress, DMK, RJD, Left, NCP, TMC, Shiv Sena, SP and BSP on Monday staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha accusing the Chair of not listening to their points terming it an “unfair” way. Leader of House in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised points blaming the Chair of being “unfair” towards Opposition and “condemned” it for not allowing him to speak. Kharge made the remarks soon after the House met at 5 pm after a short adjournment followed by a verbal spat between Bachchan and treasury benches. “I am a new member in Rajya Sabha. But the rules states that the Leader of Opposition and Leader of House are always given chance to speak whenever they want to speak on any issue. In our case, we have to request and ask again and again,” Kharge said. “This is very unfortunate and very unfair. I condemn it and walk out from the House.” Subsequently, all the Opposition walked out of the House. BJP leader Bhuwanwswar Kalitha, who was Presiding the Chair, told the LoP that he has been given chance to speak but Kharge along with other Opposition party leaders staged a walkout from the House. Meanwhile, BJP leader GVL Narasimha raised the point of order and said that Kharge condemned the Chair and the word should be expunged from the record. “LoP is condemning the Chair. It should be expunged,” he stated. From Chair, Kalitha said, “I have heard and taken cognizance”. Since morning, the Opposition was raising issues to revoke the suspension of 12 MPs, and Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri incident that involved Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni’s jailed son Ashish Mishra. In a move that angered the Opposition and set the stage for acrimonious exchanges, a dozen members of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha were suspended from the winter session on the very first day on Monday following a motion brought in by the government. The members were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August when marshals were called after Opposition members stormed the Well of the House during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021. The suspended members comprise six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM: Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI. All the suspended 12 MPs used to sit near Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the Parliament premises since they were suspended from the House, and the Opposition parties have been relentlessly disrupting House proceedings every day over the issue barring a few occasions. The Opposition has been demanding the sacking of MoS Ajay Mishra Teni over his jailed son, who is accused of running over farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. Opposition’s demands for Mishra’s sacking from the Union Cabinet have become louder after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) report said the killing of farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 was a “planned conspiracy”. The farmers were crushed, allegedly by an SUV driven by Ashish Mishra, “with intent to commit murder” and it was “not death by negligence”, the report said. It also recommended that the charges of rash driving against Ashish Mishra and the others be modified and an attempt to murder charge and the charge of voluntarily causing hurt be added. Ashish Mishra and others are already facing murder and conspiracy charges. The SIT on the basis of investigation also moved the court for adding charges of attempt to murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention. On October 3, eight people, including four protesting farmers, died after being mowed down by an SUV allegedly belonging to Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra.
