Rajya Sabha adjourned till Tuesday after uproar over 8 MPs' suspension

After the opposition protests over the suspension of eight lawmakers on Monday disrupted Rajya Sabha proceedings and led to several adjournments, its Chairman adjourned the House till Tuesday.

The Rajya Sabha was first adjourned till 10 am. When it reconvened, the opposition lawmakers suspended from the House refused to leave and indulged in sloganeering. This led to second adjournment till 10.36 am.

Disruption of proceedings continued thereafter, leading to another adjournment of the Rajya Sabha till 11.07 am. After the Rajya Sabha reconvened again, it saw another adjournment till noon.

At 12 pm, the Chair adjourned the House for the day till 9 am on Tuesday.

Bhubaneswar Kalita, who was in the Chair, repeatedly asked the suspended members to leave the House but his directions went unheeded.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad was not able to speak as the Chair said that until its earlier ruling was adhered to, he could not be allowed. The point was also raised by BJP's Bhupender Yadav.

In the morning, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu suspended eight MPs, minutes after the House reconvened. These lawmakers from Trinamool, the Congress, CPI-M and AAP were accused of creating ruckus in Parliament on Sunday.

The motion was moved by V Murlidharan, MoS for Parliamentary Affairs, following which the House suspended Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen of Trinamool Congress, Rajeev Satav, Ripun Bora, and Syed Naseer Hussain of Congress, Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party and KK Ragesh and E Kareem of Communist Party of India-Marxist.

The opposition members indulged in sloganeering after the resolution was moved by voice vote.

Earlier, Naidu said that it was a "sad day for democracy" and "unfortunate" and "condemnable", as he rejected a no-confidence motion against Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed bedlam on Sunday as the government sought to get cleared two of the three contentious farm Bills amid unrelenting opposition protests. TMC MP Derek O'Brien allegedly tore a rule book while Rajeev Satav and Sanjay Singh climbed on a table in the House to protest.

--IANS

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