Winter session: Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon

Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till noon on Thursday following the ruckus by the Opposition leaders over the suspension of 12 MPs. Soon after resuming the business on the fourth day of the ongoing winter session, Rajya Rabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the House amid pandemonium created by the Opposition leaders.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Nadu on Tuesday had said that the suspension of these members was "in order to protect the democracy" and that "it was the decision of the House and not of the Chair". In a move that angered the Opposition and set the stage for acrimonious exchanges, a dozen members of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha were suspended from the winter session on the very first day on Monday following a motion brought in by the government.

The members were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August when marshals were called after Opposition members stormed the Well of the House during the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021. The suspended members comprise six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM: Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI.