Suspended TMC MPs to stage dharna till end of Parliament’s Winter Session

Suspended Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri will stage a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue on the Parliament premises from Wednesday. Sources said they will sit in protest daily from 10 am to 6 pm.

Their protest will continue their dharna every week from Monday to Friday till December 23, the last day of the Winter Session of Parliament.

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A source said: “Trinamool MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will go to the dharna spot throughout the week to show solidarity with the 12 MPs from different parties who have been suspended from Parliament while trying to save Parliamentary democracy.”

“We will fight to save democracy and save Parliament,” TMC says.

WHAT LED TO THE PROTEST

The MPs are protesting against the suspension of 12 Opposition members from Rajya Sabha over the ruckus on the floor of the House during the Monsoon session in August, due to which the session had to be ended two days earlier than scheduled.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said that the suspension of the 12 MPs will not be revoked. “The members who had committed the sacrilege against the house have not shown remorse. So, I think the appeal by the Opposition [to revoke the suspensions] is not worth considering,” Naidu said.

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Seeking action against them earlier in the day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and said the monsoon session of Parliament was the most “reprehensible and shameful session in the history of our Parliamentary democracy.”

GOVERNMENT’S ALLEGATIONS

According to the government, Dola Sen put a hangman’s loop made up of fabric/scarf (resembling a noose) around the neck of colleague MP Shanta Chhetri and held the other end of the loop in her hand and shouted slogans. Holding the loop around her neck, Shanta Chettri followed Dola Sen up to the well of the House on the right side of Chair.

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The government also alleged that Dola Sen obstructed the way of the Leader of the House and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs coming from the Chairman’s chamber to take their respective seats in the House. They had also been pushed by her.

Dola Sen, the government said, also argued and pushed the women officials of the Parliament Security Service (PSS). She also displayed the loop high in the air that was worn by Shanta Chhetri.