'Punish Unruly Opposition MPs': Ministerial Team To Rajya Sabha Chairman

The "unprecedented, extreme, and violent acts" by Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha last week demands stern action, a delegation of seven Union Ministers has submitted to House Chairman Venkaiah Naidu. Receiving a memorandum on the matter from the team, he said he will examine the matter and decide on an appropriate course of action.

During its meeting with the Chairman, which also saw the presence of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, the delegation referred to marshals being prevented by the MPs from discharging their duties.

The team of ministers that met him consisted of Piyush Goyal, Prahlad Joshi, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupender Yadav, Arjun Ram Meghwal, and V Muralidharan.

Chairman Naidu later met MP Sasmit Patra, who was in the Chair when the events of August 11 took place in the Rajya Sabha.

On that day, as the government presented a bill to allow greater private participation in public sector insurers, chaotic scenes were witnessed in the House, including physical jostling between the opposition and parliament security staff.

"In 55 years of my parliamentary career, I have never seen this kind of behaviour towards women MPs in the August House. More than 40 men and women were brought into the house from outside. It is painful. It is an attack on democracy," NCP chief Sharad Pawar alleged.

Several women MPs have alleged they were physically assaulted by male marshals as they were protesting.

The government, however, rejected such claims and, in turn, alleged that it was a woman marshal who was in fact manhandled by opposition members.