TMC leader Derek O'Brien's 'suspension' from Rajya Sabha put on hold

New Delhi, August 8

After announcing that TMC leader Derek O’Brien has been suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the remaining  part of the Monsoon Session, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar later put the decision on hold saying he had not “taken the sense of the House” on the issue.

As soon as the House met at noon after the adjournment, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari requested Dhankhar to refrain from taking “extreme steps” and reconsider his decision.

Tiwari said while a resolution had been moved proposing O’Brien’s suspension, the resolution had not been put for voting.

O’Brien himself strongly objected when Dhankhar said something about O’Brien meeting him in his room. Dhankhar clarified that he did not suggest that the TMC leader meet him today and added that he was talking about previous meetings in his chamber.

However, O’Brien’s reaction infuriated the Chairman once again and he asked the members to comment upon the way O’Brien addressed him.

Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, calling O’Brien a “friend” asked him to express regret to the Chair.

In the meantime, BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi raised the issue of an NYT report. There were again noisy scenes in the House prompting Dhankhar to adjourn the House till 12.45pm.

When the House met again, the Chairman started reading the question listed for Question Hour. But the answer could not be read out by the minister due to the noise inside the House.

The Chairman said Congress’s Jairam Ramesh met him and brought to his notice a word allegedly used against the Congress by Leader of the House Piyush Goyal. Goyal said if the word was found unparliamentary, it could be expunged from the records.

The Chairman then said that he was not “finished with Derek O’Brien yet”. But noisy protests including the slogan of ‘Manipur, Manipur’ being given by a section of the Opposition forced the Chairman to adjourn the House till 2pm.