Winter session: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm after Opposition ruckus

The Rajya Sabha on Monday adjourned till 2 pm due to ruckus created by the Opposition leaders following the rejection of notices given by several members for suspension of rules. 

Soon after the House assembled for the day and papers were laid on the table. Ruckus was created in the House when Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu announced the rejection of notices given under 267 (suspension of rules). Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh was among several Opposition leaders who submitted notices under 267 in the House. 

As per rule notice 267, "any member, may, with the consent of the Chairman, move that any rule may be suspended in its application to a motion related to the business listed before the Council of that day and if the motion is carried, the rule in question shall be suspended for the time being: Provided further that this rule shall not apply where specific provision already exists for suspension of a rule under a particular chapter of the Rules". 

The ruckus started and the Opposition leaders showed placards seeking revocation of suspension of 12 MPs from the House. Before the Opposition pandemonium gets more fierce, the Chairman adjourned the House till 2 pm. Since the beginning of the Winter Session on November 29, Rajya Sabha has been facing a ruckus over the revocation of the suspension of 12 MPs from the House. 

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.