On Thursday, a high-octane drama unfolded in the Rajya Sabha over TMC MP Derek O’Brien’s suspension from the Parliament. The RS Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar first announced that the TMC leader has to withdraw from the House “for unruly behaviour unbecoming of a Member of Rajya Sabha.” Later, however, he said the motion to suspend him was not put to vote and hence, he could continue to attend the proceedings.
According to reports, O’Brien was permitted to attend the Upper House only after Dhankhar said he had made a “far-sighted” decision to forbid voting on the motion to suspend the TMC MP.
The Chairman was persuaded to be forgiving of O’Brien by a number of members, including Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, but Dhankar questioned the reason for the forbearance.
If O’Brien would have been suspended from the House for this session, do you think he would have been allowed to enter the House again? Can he come back again?” the chairman said, adding that for him action against any member is a matter of pain.
“I have ended my own pain, no one has done that. If the motion was passed fully, O’Brien could not have entered the House again,” Dhankar added.
Jagdeep Dhankhar, the chairman, stated that he made a deliberate decision to not take the House’s position on the motion to suspend O’Brien. The TMC MP would not have been able to return to the Rajya Sabha the same day, he asserted, if he had finished the suspension process.
“This is too serious a matter for me to be overruled. After deep, immediate deliberation, I did not take the sense of the House earlier. If I had really fructified the process, Derek O’Brien would have been out of the House. In my wisdom, I thought I must not take it to that conclusion at that point of time,” Mr Dhankhar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“I am yet to conclude on Mr Derek O’Brien,” he said.
“Did not take sense of House…yet to conclude on Derek O’Brien”: RS Chairman on move for TMC member’s suspension
— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) August 8, 2023
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/qOzvv6uGCA#DerekOBrien #TMC #Rajyasabha pic.twitter.com/k3U3L2jnRI
Notably, the TMC MP’s suspension came after a motion was moved by Union Minister Piyush Goyal against O’Brien “for continuously disrupting the proceedings of the House, disobeying the Chair and continuously and wilfully creating a disturbance in the House.”
During the proceedings earlier in the day, the TMC MP lost his cool even as he stood up to raise the point of order. O’Brien demanded a discussion on Manipur and pointed fingers at the Speaker during his aggressive address. Following this, Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar lambasted the TMC leader and asked O’Brien to take his seat but to no avail. The Speaker then rose from his chair and asked Derek O’Brien to leave the House.
Derek O'Brien indulged in unruly behaviour once again in Rajya Sabha. Union Minister officially reqyested the Charman to suspend his for the rest of the ongoing session after which the Chairmam suspended hm effective immediately pic.twitter.com/FDdHkykL7y
— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) August 8, 2023
Amid a din, a motion was moved by Minister Piyush Goyal followed by O’Brien’s suspension for the remainder of the Monsoon session, which ends on August 11.
