Rajya Sabha faces 5 adjournments as Opposition continues ruckus on revocation of suspension of 12 MPs

Amid ruckus from the Opposition seeking revocation of suspension of 12 MPs from the House, the Rajya Sabha on Monday witnessed five back to back adjournments as they refused to participate in the short discussion on inflation.

Joint Opposition, including Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, TRS, AAP and the Left, continued their protest the entire day, following which, the House was adjourned for the fifth time in a day as soon as it assembled at 4 pm after the fourth adjournment.

Amid the pandemonium created by the Opposition members, Union Home Minister Amit Shah read his statement over the unfortunate killing of 13 civilians in Nagaland by security forces on Saturday, who called it an incident of "mistaken identity".

Subsequently, Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh requested the Opposition MPs to go back to their seats and to begin the discussion on the situation arising out of price rise in the country including the rise in the prices of petroleum products.

As the din continued, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House till 11 am on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, almost all the Opposition party members trooped in the Well of the House sloganeering "Revoke the suspension of 12 MPs".

Earlier, the House faced four back to back adjournments-- first till noon, the second till 2 pm, third till 3 pm and the fourth till 4 pm.

The Opposition raised the issue to revoke the suspension of 12 MPs a few minutes after the House assembled for the day at 11 am.

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.

Since after their suspension, all the 12 MPs regularly visit the Parliament and keep sitting outside Mahatma Gandhi Statue.

( With inputs from ANI )