New Delhi: As the issue of Manipur violence continued to disrupt parliamentary proceedings for the third day today, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh from the House for the rest of the monsoon session today. Singh had allegedly jumped into the well of the House raising slogans and refusing to go back despite being warned by the Chairman during a face-off between the government and the Opposition over the Manipur violence. The Opposition members are demanding the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament to discuss the Manipur issue.
Incidentally, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Lok Sabha that the government was ready for discussion of the issue in Parliament.
Following Singh’s suspension the Opposition protested against his suspension, and amid din, both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day.
Singh later tweeted, “Shameless Prime Minister of India not ready to answer in the House on Manipur India’s 140 crore people are ashamed but India’s shameless Prime Minister Modi, #Manipur is not ready to answer in the House. There were 27 notices but no party was allowed to speak. I was suspended after being targeted. Which Democracy is this? -AAP MP @SanjayAzadSln“
Ostensibly as a mark of protest, floor leaders of opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha walked out of a meeting called by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar at 1 pm to discuss Singh’s suspension after the latter objected to Raghav Chadha of the AAP and Santanu Sen of the Trinamool Congress attending the meeting as they are not the floor leaders of their respective parties.
The suspension comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party and the AAP are already at loggerheads over the Centre’s ordinance that takes away the elected Delhi government’s authority on the control of bureaucrats in Delhi. Singh told a newspaper that his suspension was linked to the controversial Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which replaces the controversial ordinance. He said the government feared losing the vote on the Bill in the House.
In protest of his suspension, Singh and some other Opposition members decided to stay on the Parliament lawns for the night.
– global bihari bureau
