Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien was on Tuesday, 21 December, suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the remaining duration of the ongoing winter session of the Parliament.
O'Brien was suspended for 'unruly behaviour' in the upper house on Tuesday. The MP had allegedly thrown the Rajya Sabha rule book towards the chair during a heated discussion on Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
"(Derek O'Brien) flung the rule book furiously in the direction of the Chair. The rule book would have hit the Chair, or Secretary General, or officials sitting at the table," said Sasmit Patra, who was presiding over the house at the time.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said: "The way TMC leader Derek O'Brien has thrown the rule book, this is not only the insult of the chair or the secretary general or the table or the House, it is an insult to the entire country."
O'Brien later took to social media and said:
"The last time I got suspended from the Rajya Sabha was when the government was BULLDOZING farm laws. We all know what happened after that. Today, I was suspended while protesting against BJP making a mockery of the Parliament and BULLDOZING Elections Laws Bill 2021. Hope this Bill too will be repealed soon," he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to link voter IDs to Aadhar on a voluntary basis, was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, 21 December, amid vehement protests from the Opposition.
Opposition MPs from both the Houses also marched from the Gandhi statue in the Parliament to Vijay Chowk on Tuesday, raising the demand for the resignation of Minister of State for Home Ajay Teni Misra in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri killings.
Both Houses have witnessed repeated disruptions, adjournments, and hit productivity lows after 12 Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended for their "unruly" conduct during the Monsoon Session.
O'Brien's suspension takes the suspended MPs count to 13.
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