New Delhi : Quiz Master & Spokesperson of Trinamool Congress, Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien has been suspended for the remaining part of the winter session. This action has been taken against him due to his ‘condemnable behaviour’ in Rajya Sabha. According to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, “Derek O’Brien had entered the well of the House and raised slogans there and disrupted the proceedings of the House.”
On Wednesday, there was high drama in both houses of parliament on Thursday, December 14, a day after there was a security breach in the Lok Sabha. Opposition parties were asking questions in the House regarding the major lapse in security of the Lok Sabha. Seeing the increasing noise and commotion, the proceedings of the House were adjourned. Other opposition parties including Congress were asking questions as to how there was such a huge negligence in the security of the House. INDIA Alliance demands that Home Minister Amit Shah will answer this question in both the houses.
It is noteworthy that there was a major lapse in the security of Parliament on Wednesday, the black 13 December. In 2001, on the anniversary of the Parliament attack, two people jumped into the floor of the House from the visitor’s gallery in the Lok Sabha. These people carried smoke stick cannister,sprayed yellow gas and raised slogans. Zero hour was going on when this incident happened inside the House.
In the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, opposition members demanded a short-term discussion on the security breach the day before. The Chairman of the Rajya Sabh Jagdeep Dhankar informed the house that he had received 26 notices demanding suspension of business to discuss the security breach but said that he did not find merit in the notices and he rejected all. Both houses were adjourned within an hour of proceedings starting.
When the Rajya Sabha resumed proceedings at noon, a motion was moved by the leader of the house and BJP MP Piyush Goyal against Derek O’Brien. Chairman Dhankar accused TMC MP O’Brien of “gross misconduct” and “gross defiance of the directions of the chair”. Goyal said that the house “having taken serious note of the misconduct of Derek O’Brien, MP, Trinamool Congress, who has entered the well of the house and has been continuously shouting slogans, gesticulating aggressively at the chair thereby disrupting the proceedings of the house in utter disregard to the authority of the chair and having been named by the chair” be suspended and Rajya Sabha adopted the Motion.
Amid sloganeering from opposition members after O’Brien’s suspension, Dhankar adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
Earlier, opposition members of the INDIA bloc also held a meeting before the session started to discuss the security breach. The parties demanded a detailed statement by Home Minister, Amit Shah in both houses of parliament, as well as strict action against the BJP MP Pratap Simha – who provided the visitor passes to the intruders.
Congress’s Spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said, “The Modi government’s refusal to accept these perfectly legitimate and reasonable demands has led to the adjournment of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha today morning”.
“Today Derek O’Brien has been suspended. It is our right to go to the well and raise people’s issues. Derek O’Brien has done nothing wrong. PM, Home Minister, Treasury are silent on the security breach issue, so as opposition we raised this issue and raised slogans,” TMC MPs Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar & Dola Sen said.
The Lok Sabha first passed a resolution suspending 5 members of parliament belonging to the Congress party — TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden, Dean Kuriakose, Jothi Mani and Ramya Haridas — for the remainder of the Parliament’s winter session, for displaying “utter disregard to the chair’s directions”.
Later, more 9 members of parliament from opposition parties were suspended. They are: Benny Behanan, VK Sreekandan, Mohammad Jawed, PR Natarajan, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, K Subrahmanyam, SR Parthiban, S Venkatesan and Manickam Tagore.
After amid sloganeering by the opposition MPs in the House, Pralhad Joshi, the union minister of parliamentary affairs said, “With your permission, I move the following: That this house has taken a serious note of the conduct of TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden, S Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and Dean Kuriakos and further 9 other members also in utter disregard of the house of the chair. The above mentioned members should be suspended from the service of the house for the remainder of the session”. Out of them, 9 from the Congress, 2 from the CPIM, 2 from the DMK and one from the CPI. The Opposition is up in arms over Wednesday’s Lok Sabha security breach and has been demanding a statement from union home minister Amit Shah in the House.
