Both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were adjourned on Thursday after members continued to shout slogans and protest inside the Parliament. Three more MPs — AAP’s Sushil Kumar Gupta and Sanjeev Kumar Pathak, and independent Ajit Kumar Bhuyan — were suspended from the Rajya Sabha for carrying placards in the House. The three MPs were protesting against and demanding a discussion on Gujarat hooch tragedy. The total number of suspended MPs from the Rajya Sabha has now reached 23. Four Congress MPs from the Lok Sabha were also suspended earlier.
The proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha remained stalled even on the ninth day of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament amid continued protests from the Congress-led Opposition over inflation, GST hike. The Opposition members also demanded that the suspension of 20 MPs be also revoked. The 20 suspended MPs are currently holding a 50-hour-long protest inside the Parliament complex near the Gandhi Statue.
In both Houses, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs slammed Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for allegedly insulting President Droupadi Murmu by calling her “rashtrapatni”. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it was “a deliberate, sexist insult” against the President who comes from a tribal background, and demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Ms. Sitharaman said it was a “common understanding that Rashtrapati is a gender agnostic word, representing the leader of the nation”.
