Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Terms Trinamool MP's Behaviour "Highly Deplorable"

A day after a suspended Trinamool MP broke the glass pane of one of the doors in the Rajya Sabha in a bid to forcibly enter the House injuring a Parliamentary security officer, the Upper House's Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said the incident was "very unfortunate" and termed the MP's behaviour "highly deplorable and condemnable".

As the House commenced its proceedings at 11 am today post adjournment on Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman addressing the House said, "Hon'ble members, yesterday a very unfortunate incident took place after the adjournment of the House for the day. One of the Members of Rajya Sabha who was earlier suspended from attending the meeting of the House for the day under Rule 255 of the Rajya Sabha rules, tried to enter the House and on being stopped by the security guard of the House, the member broke the glass of one of the doors of the inner lobby of the Rajya Sabha chamber."

"A lady security officer from the Parliament Security Service was hit by the glass piece and got injured. She has lodged a complaint under the consideration of the Hon'ble Chairman. This behaviour of the member is highly deplorable and condemnable," he added.

A Parliament Security Services (PSS) officer suffered minor injuries on Wednesday when Arpita Ghosh, one of the suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs, broke the glass pane of a wooden door of the Rajya Sabha by smashing her mobile phone in a bid to forcibly enter the Upper House of Parliament.

The incident took place when the six suspended Trinamool MPs tried to forcibly enter the Rajya Sabha chamber after the House was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

According to a statement issued by the Parliament Security Service of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, the six Trinamool MPs, who were suspended on Wednesday including Bola Sen, Md. Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor, continued to raise anti-government slogans standing outside the Rajya Sabha chamber surrounded by the security personnel who were preventing them from entering the House.

Responding to the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman's remarks, Trinamool leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said, "The MP was suspended for the day, but she wanted to enter the House after the House was adjourned for the day. How could she be stopped then? What was going in the House," he asked.

BJP MP and Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal said that this is an unfortunate incident and defended the staff that the MP was stopped as sanitisation work was going to begin.

Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Malliakarjun Kharge said that the protests by the opposition on various issues in the House are part of democratic rights and even late BJP leader and former union minister Arun Jaitely had said that protesting and opposing is a part of a democratic process.

Following Mr Kharge's remarks, the Upper House was adjourned for 15 minutes, till 11:30 am.

Amid sloganeering by Opposition Parliamentarians, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the second time till 2 pm on Thursday.

The business of both the Houses of the Parliament remained majorly disrupted due to the continuous ruckus created by the Opposition over the issues including farmers' protest, Pegasus spyware, COVID-19 and inflation.

The Monsoon Session commenced on July 19 and is scheduled to continue till August 13.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)