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TMC moves 6 amendments to President's speech

Other amendments moved include absence of mention of the economic slowdown, EIU’s Global Democracy Index, failure to condemn hate speech

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress joined other Opposition parties to discuss the emerging situation arising from the nationwide agitation over the Citizenship Amendment Act in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

On Monday, the party submitted a notice under Rule 267, with similar notices also being submitted by other Opposition parties, including the Congress. While speaking to media persons in Parliament, TMC chief whip and senior Parliamentarian Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said: "Everybody knows what is happening in the country. Even Central ministers are asking people at public meetings to take up arms and shoot people who are opposing the CAA... Incidents of firing have taken place both at Jamia Millia and Shaheen Bagh. Some persons have been injured; several others have been implicated in false cases, arrested and tortured in the jails."

The Opposition further claimed that several times they tried to rake up the issue on the floor of the House to discuss on the same day.

However, it was not allowed. "This is not only unfortunate, but it is also unprecedented as well," Roy added further. Eventually, the Upper House was adjourned.

Further, the TMC supremo and former Parliamentarian Mamata Banerjee urged that the Opposition should protest against "the politics of muscle power and violence in a peaceful and democratic way."

Besides, for the first time since 1992, the Trinamool Congress has moved six amendments against President Ram Nath Kovind's speech where he listed the contentious CAA as an achievement of the Narendra Modi government. The move has also opened doors of discussion on the contentious citizenship law. The President, on January 31, had hailed the CAA as "historic" in his address in the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, prompting protests by some Opposition members.

Both TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien and chief whip Sukhendu Sekhar Ray have moved the amendments on behalf of the party in the Upper House pertaining to the "silence" of the President on the ongoing protests against the CAA and demanding that the speech include the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). The amendments will be moved in the Lok Sabha as well.

Among the other amendments moved include "absence of the mention of economic slowdown, drop of India's rank on the Global Press Freedom Index, EIU's Global Democracy Index and a low rank on the Global Hunger Index, failure to condemn hate speech and divisive statements made by ministers and MPs and silence over the six-month long detention of political leaders, including sitting MP from Jammu and Kashmir and former chief ministers of the state".

The TMC is the third largest party in the Lower House with 22 MPs and fifth in the Upper House with 13 MPs.

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