AAP MP Sanjay Singh was suspended from Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for the remaining part of the week for "unruly behaviour", ANI reported. On Tuesday, during the Opposition protest in Rajya Sabha, Singh had torn a paper and hurled its pieces towards the Chair.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh invoked Rule 256, saying Singh's action was in utter disregard of rules and the authority of the Chair. Then, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan moved a motion to suspend Singh from the House for the remainder of the week.
The motion was adopted by voice vote, even as Ppposition members continued protest in the well of the House. The deputy chairman then asked Singh to leave the House soon after the motion was adopted.
Speaking on the matter at a press conference on Tuesday, Singh said, "Yes I tore the paper and threw. I didn't do this for any personal reason. Twenty-eight people have died in Gujarat due to consumption of spurious liquor. I wanted to raise this issue. I made repeated request for this but the Chair did not listen."
Sanjay Singh's suspension comes a day after a record 19 MPs from opposition parties were suspended from Rajya Sabha after they continued to disrupt House proceedings demanding an immediate discussion on price rise and GST rate hike on essential items.
Seven of the suspended MPs belong to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), six were from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), three from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), two from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and one from the Communist Party of India (CPI).
On Monday, four Congress MPs were suspended from Lok Sabha for the rest of the session over continuous disruptions of proceedings by Opposition lawmakers since the beginning of the Monsoon session on July 18.
At the press conference, Sanjay Singh termed the suspension of 19 opposition members as "dictatorship" while asserting that AAP would continue to raise the voice of people in Parliament.
"We give notice under 267, you don't take any action...When we speak outside, you file a case. You don't let us speak in the House and when we raise our voice, you suspend (us)," PTI quoted Singh as saying.
"I want to tell the Modi government that our protest will continue. We are not going to give up. We have been sent to Parliament to raise the issues affecting the masses," he had said.
Singh said his party would raise the issue of price rise, GST, death of 28 people due to consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat and "exploitation of youth" under Agnipath defence recruitment scheme in Rajya Sabha.
Singh also accused the Centre of using agencies like ED and CBI as tools to suppress the opposition. "The AAP is the victim. They kept our Health Minister (Satyendar Jain) in jail and are going to start a CBI probe against our deputy chief minister (Manish Sisodia)," Singh had said.