New Delhi: Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday suspended six TMC MPs for the day for carrying placards while protesting along with other opposition MPs over the Pegasus spying issue. In the midst of the din, the House passed three bills in an hour.
Naidu threatened to invoke rule 255 against those holding placards. As the members refused to budge, he ordered that those “disobeying the chair and raising placards shall leave the House under rule 255”.
Later, a parliamentary bulletin identified the six MPs as Dola Sen, Md Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor.
Amid the protests, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman first introduced the Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to encourage start-ups and improve the ease of doing business. The bill was passed in 25 minutes.
Similarly, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill was passed in about 15 minutes. The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill 2021 moved by the civil aviation minister, in turn, was passed in less than 20 minutes.
Deputy chairman Harivansh did give a chance to a few opposition MPs to speak on the bills but they instead chose to raise other issues, making him cut them short and move on with the proceedings.
Lok Sabha passed two legislations amid opposition protests- the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021 and the Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021- within a matter of a few minutes as opposition parties continued to shout slogans over the Pegasus issue.
(With agency inputs)
