Trinamool Congress floor leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien becomes 13th MP to be suspended for the remaining part of the winter session after the resolution was moved for his suspension by MoS Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan.

In the Chair was Sasmit Patra who condemned the act of O’Brien for throwing rule book towards the Chair which could have hit any official. Patra said the conduct of the Trinamool leader has lowered the dignity of the office of the floor leader.

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The incident occurred during passing of bill on electoral reforms. The government on Tuesday faced stiff resistance from opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha and the BJP alleged that Trinamool Congress member Derek O’Brien threw the rule book on Secretary General.

Leader of the house, Piyush Goyal said, “we thought that the opposition will learn some lessons but the same thing has been repeated.”

Goyal said Derek O’Brien threw the rule book and he should not have done it. Goyal also sought apology from the 12 suspended MPs.

While Bhupender Yadav raised point of order and said that the opposition has been questioning the Chair repeatedly, but rules say that the Chair’s ruling is binding on all.

After being suspended from the Rajya Sabha, O’Brien said in a tweet, “The last time I got suspended from RS was when govt was BULLDOZING #FarmLaws. We all know what happened after that. Today, I was suspended while protesting against BJP making a mockery of #Parliament and BULLDOZING #ElectionLawsBill2021. Hope this Bill too will be repealed soon.”

Earlier the Upper House had suspended 12 MPs for the entire winter session for creating a ruckus in the House during the monsoon session on August 11.

The suspended MPs are from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI, CPI-M and the Shiv Sena.

The members are Syed Naseer Hussain, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora and Rajmani Patel of the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena, Elamaram Kareem of the CPI-M, Binoy Viswam of the CPI, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of the Trinamool.