New Delhi [India] : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a meeting with the senior ministers in the Parliament. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman were among the attendees. The winter session of Parliament began on November 29 and will continue till December 23. Both houses of Parliament have witnessed repeated adjournments over the Opposition’s demand for revocation of suspension of 12 MPs from the Rajya Sabha. The MPs were suspended over alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August. Earlier today, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi expressed solidarity with the suspended 12 members of Parliament and said that the move by the Rajya Sabha Chairman is “unprecedented and unacceptable.” 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. Since their suspension, all the 12 MPs regularly visit the Parliament and keep sitting outside Mahatma Gandhi Statue in Parliament premises. 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.
