New Delhi [India]: Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien was suspended from the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday for the remaining winter session of Parliament for throwing rule book on the reporters’ table during a discussion on the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021′. Biju Janata Dal leader Sasmit Patra, who was Presiding the Chair, made the announcement to suspend Derek followed by a motion moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Murleedharan in the Upper House. TMC member Derek threw the Rajya Sabha rule book on the reporters’ table as the Chair rejected his point of order saying the matter is explained. The treasury benches then raised the issue to suspend him. The TMC leader then staged a walkout from the House following other members of Opposition parties that included Congress, DMK, TMC, AAP, Shiv Sena, Left, RJD, Samajwadi Party and BSP. The Opposition parties staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha accusing the Chair of not allowing division sought by them over the ‘Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021’. The Opposition members strongly opposed the Bill and asked the government to take it back and finally staged a walkout from the House when Deputy Chairman did now allow their demand citing “the members are in the Well and division cannot be given in this situation as per rule”. The Opposition was seeking division on the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that aims to give effect to the long-pending electoral reforms including linking Aadhaar with the voter ID card. As the Opposition did not get division, all of their members staged walkout from the House. Meanwhile, with the suspension of Derek from Rajya Sabha, now the total number of suspended MPs from the House is 13. Earlier, the House had suspended 12 MPs from the House on the first day of the Winter Session on November 29 from the entire proceedings. 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.
