The opposition will boycott the proceedings of the House till the suspension of eight members is revoked, announced Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday. The Centre agreed to the demand but with a condition.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi said the government is ready to revoke the suspension if the lawmakers express regret for their conduct. The Centre is also ready to have discussions on the farm Bills and also division of votes on them if the condition is met.
Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav also urged for the revocation of the suspensions, saying he was ready to offer an apology on behalf of the Opposition.
Speaking after the Zero Hour on Tuesday, Azad also demanded that the government brings a bill which should ensure private players don’t procure food grains below the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government. He also asked the government that the MSP should be fixed from time to time as per the C2 Swaminathan formula.
Eight opposition members of the Rajya Sabha were suspended on Monday for the rest of the session over the “unruly behaviour” in the House during Sunday’s passing of the farm bills.
The members, including Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien, Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh, Congress’s Rajeev Satav and CPM’s KK Ragesh, refused to leave over the suspension. The MPs spent the night on the lawns of Parliament complex before joining other opposition leaders to walk to President Ram Nath Kovind’s official residence to bring his attention to the issue.
With the opposition deciding to boycott the remaining session of the Rajya Sabha, the eight suspended MPs ended their overnight sit-in inside the Parliament House complex and said they would take their fight against the farm bills to the street. The suspended Rajya Sabha parliamentarians got a surprise visitor in the morning – Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh who came with tea and snacks.
Till late night, the protesting MPs raised slogans and sang songs while a host of Opposition leaders such as National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, Samajwadi Party’s Jaya Bachchan and Congress’ Ahmed Patel, Digvijaya Singh and Shashi Tharoor visited them to express their support. But their morning visitor did not receive the same enthusiastic response, said some of the protesting MPs.
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