Rajya Sabha adjourned amid Opposition walk out, as Piyush Goyal demands apology by suspended members
New Delhi, Nov 30 : The Rajya Sabha was on Tuesday adjourned soon after it met in the post-lunch session with opposition members staging a walk out for the day over suspension of 12 members by the Chair, even as Leader of the House Piyush Goyal demanded that the opposition members should apologise for their “misconduct”.
As soon as the House met in the afternoon, Leader of the House, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, reminiscing the events of August 11, the tumultuous last day of the Monsoon session of Parliament that led the Chair to suspend the 12 members on Monday, said that the members should apologise not just to the House, but to the country for their misconduct.
“We want them to apologise, and realise their mistake. We can have an all-party meeting on the issue, and a consensus can be arrived at (on House proceedings). But the members should apologise first, not just to the House and the Chair, but to the country for their misconduct,” he said.
He reminisced on how the opposition members “did not allow the House to function and even came to attack us”.
“The whole country has seen how the House has been insulted, and what the opposition did in the Monsoon session,” he said.
The Union Minister thanked the Chair and all the staff members of the House, and Marshalls, for how they “despite such bad behaviour kept patience, and tolerated every attack, without complaining,” during the Monsoon session.
He said that opposition members on August 9 called for a division (on voting on the amendment to send the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2021 to a select committee), without giving advance notice.
However, the division was defeated with 79 votes in favour of the Chair, and 44 in favour of the opposition, he said.
“The opposition’s devices (against the government) failed. The opposition members say that they were suspended as we (government) do not have the numbers,” Goyal said, and invited the Opposition to again call for division.
“Please come and let us deliberate, have division, and let’s see who has majority, and with whom the House is standing,” he said.
Referring to the August 11 events (when the Opposition was protesting over the Pegasus Project report, farm laws and price rise), he said some members made a noose and were taking it around, while some tore the Parliament papers and there was whistling and hooting, and that “it went beyond the tolerance level”.
He said they suggested forming a committee to study the events, but the opposition refused to be part of it.
“Yesterday was the first day of the House, and the House is a continuing institution,” Goyal said, rejecting opposition claims that suspension cannot be done on the basis of a past session.
“We had requested that the misconduct of the members should be noted, and of the members who misbehaved, and in the new session we decided to take action, and the House passed the order” for their suspension, he added.
Union Minister Prahlad Joshi said the House is ready for constructive criticism. He wanted a discussion on the state of dams, but the opposition had walked out for the day.
Deputy Chair of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh then adjourned the House, to 1100 hrs on Wednesday.
UNI