Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon amid Oppn uproar on suspension of 12 MPs

Rajya Sabha on Monday adjourned till noon following a ruckus created by Opposition parties over the suspension of 12 members of Parliament.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien raised the issue for revocation of suspension of 12 MPs and he was joined by other Opposition party leaders.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected his points and asked him to sit and let the House conduct Zero Hour.

"I have heard this issue several times. I will not allow it...You are not letting Zero Hour function as there are several important matters to be discussed related to public welfare," Naidu said.

The ruckus started soon after the papers were laid on the table and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge requested the Chairman to direct the Home Minister to speak over the Nagaland incident that occurred on Sunday claiming several civilians lives in firing by security forces.

Amid the din, the Chairman directed to start Zero Hour and subsequently adjourned the House till noon as the ruckus continued.

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.

( With inputs from ANI )