Opposition party leaders in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will take out a march on December 14 from Parliament to Vijay Chowk in the national capital to protest against the suspension of 12 members from the Upper House for the ongoing winter session.
The decision was taken by the floor leaders of Opposition parties in both the Houses of Parliament during a meeting at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. The leaders discussed the strategy to press for the demand of revoking the suspension of the 12 opposition members. The leaders, including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, will address media after the march demanding a rollback of the decision.
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“The (Rajya Sabha) chairman has full powers to suspend any rule, issue direction, or revoke it but the government is not letting him do it. I request the chairman to use his powers to bring back these 12 (suspended) MPs to the House,” Kharge told news agency ANI ahead of the meeting.
The Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha have been unrelenting in their demand to reverse the decision to suspend 12 MPs since the beginning of the Winter Session two weeks ago.
The members were suspended for the rest of the Winter Session for their “unruly behaviour” during the Monsoon Session of Parliament held earlier this year.
READ: Leaders of 12 opposition parties condemn Centre over suspension of Rajya Sabha members
The ruling party BJP has 97 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, which has a total strength of 245. The halfway mark for a majority is 123. Seven seats are vacant in the Upper House currently.
The Opposition had, however, refrained from demanding the revocation of suspension for two days last week out of respect for the late Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, who was killed, along with his wife and 11 others, in a chopper crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8.
“We have been suspended as we wanted to raise people’s issues. In the last session, Opposition MPs were suspended three times. Yet, the government dragged the last session’s incidents to this session to stop us again from speaking in the House,” TMC leader Dola Sen, one of the 12 suspended MPs told Hindustan Times.
While the Lok Sabha worked smoothly on December 13, Congress MPs walked out of the Rajya Sabha protesting against the continued standoff over the suspensions.
The Rajya Sabha has been repeatedly adjourned amid the opposition’s protests. It has recorded a productivity of 52.50 percent in the second week, an improvement of 5.6 percent over that of the first week, according to news agency ANI.
Also read: Winter Session of Parliament | Opposition resumes protest over suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs
During these two weeks, the Rajya Sabha spent 34.25 per cent of the functional time on the government’s legislative business passing a total of five Bills, including the two Bills passed during the first week, the news agency said in the report
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