Congress refuses to join proposed committee to inquire into Rajya Sabha ruckus

The Congress has refused to nominate any party member to a proposed committee being set up to inquire into the ruckus that took place during the last day of the Monsoon session of Parliament on August 11, The Hindu reported on Thursday.

“It will not only suppress the voices of people’s representatives but will deliberately brush aside all those that are uncomfortable to the government,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said in a letter to M Venkaiah Naidu, the chairperson of the Upper House.

On August 11, chaos had erupted in Rajya Sabha with the Opposition MPs storming into the well of the House and shouting slogans against the government.

Security staff were deployed in huge numbers in the House to prevent a repetition of similar events that had unfolded on August 10 in Parliament in which several Opposition MPs had climbed atop tables and thrown papers, demanding that the Centre withdraw the farm laws.

The staff was deployed in a cross-gendered manner – male marshals were positioned near women MPs and female officers were near the male legislators. The Congress had alleged that women MPs were manhandled by the marshals.

The Opposition had also alleged that outsiders “who were not part of Parliament security” were brought inside to…

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