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Oppn boycotts RS, claims voice being muzzled

New Delhi: A letter from the office of West Bengal Governor directing top police officer to attend a meeting has sparked furore in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, which led to a day-long boycott by the United Opposition for the first time in the ongoing Budget session of the parliament.
It started with a notice given by the leader of TMC, Derek O'Brien under rule 267 for submission of business to discuss bypassing of jurisdiction of the State Government and "a threat of such action poses to the federal structure enshrined in the Constitution," they alleged.
The moment O'Brien tried to raise the issue Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Venkiah Naidu immediately adjourned the House till 2pm. Before that Leader of Opposition Gulam Nobi Azad wanted to raise the issue of BJP president Amit Shah's speech which was objectionable in nature. Immediately after the adjournment of the house all opposition leaders assembled together inside the house for a stand up meeting and decided to announce boycott of Tuesday's proceeding against the muzzling of voice of the opposition.
On 31st January, a letter from the office of the West Bengal Governor was sent to the Divisional Commissioner of Malda Division asking Inspector General of Police of Murshidabad district to present in a meeting convened by the Governor in the Circuit House to discuss about development schemes of the State as well as Central Government and Law and order issue in the district. This has actually irked the TMC party, what they felt it was against the spirit of the constitution where role of Governor is categorically enshrined.
According to O'Brien, a Governor cannot act on his own without the consent from the Council of Ministers of the State. In this case, office of the Governor should have written to the Chief Secretary of the state for seeking the presence of the IGP of the district.
O'Brien while giving notice to the Chairman wrote that since law and order and other issues exclusively within the domain of the state government, it is expected that a constitutional authority would not bypass its jurisdiction in these matters. TMC leader claimed that in the morning meeting inside the chamber of the Chairman they duly informed the chair that TMC wanted to raise the serious issue. But the Chair did not allow even to mention on the subject.
Then all opposition parties including Left Parties, DMK and even AAP decided to jointly boycott the
proceedings for the day and later they decided to write jointly to the Chairman on their grievances.
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