TMC MP allowed to attend RS after motion to suspend him not put to vote

Kolkata: With reports doing rounds that the Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar suspended Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien for the rest of the Monsoon session for unruly behaviour, the party clarified that he was not suspended and instead mounted attack on the BJP for continuing to dodge discussion on Manipur in Parliament.

Amid much talk that Derek O’Brien has been suspended from Rajya Sabha for alleged unruly behaviour, it later came to light that such was not the case. It was learnt that the voting on the motion to suspend him did not take place on Tuesday. It was apparent that Jagdeep Dhankhar told Derek to leave the House for “unruly behaviour unbecoming of a Member of Rajya Sabha”.

Leader of the House Piyush Goyal did move a motion for his suspension “for continuously disturbing the proceedings of the House, disobeying the Chair and continuously creating the disturbance in the House”. The decision on suspension of O’Brien is still pending with Dhankhar clarifying that the process did not fructify as he didn’t take the sense of the House.

TMC Rajya MP and spokesperson Saket Gokhale took to his social media handle and clarified that “MP@ derekobrienmp has NOT been suspended. Even though that’s what Modi Govt desperately wants’.” He said the Modi government’s “godi channels” are dutifully spreading fake news.

On the other hand, TMC rained down criticism on the BJP government at the Centre for allegedly continuing to dodge discussion on the Manipur issue. Derek took to his social media handle and tweeted: “19 days PM Narendra Modi has been MISSING IN #Parliament. It’s taken the rules of a No Confidence Motion to FINALLY DRAG PM to Lok Sabha. And in # RajyaSabha what’s stopping this heartless government from starting the discussion on #Manipur TODAY AUG 8 at 11 am. Let’s begin.”

The party also tweeted: “PM Narendra Modi has ample time to attend @BJP4India’s Parliamentary Party meeting. But, he suddenly becomes too busy to address the Manipur violence in Parliament, a bloodbath that has claimed hundreds of lives. Mr. PM, it is always party over people for you, isn’t it?”

TMC further tweeted: “We did not bend, they did not suspend!MP @derekobrienmp stands strong, undeterred by @BJP4India’s authoritarian attempts to silence dissenting voices. We will continue to fight until justice is served to Manipur. Our commitment to people’s rights shall remain unwavering!”