“Hammara bath itna bhayanak hai,” said Jaya Bachchan.
New Delhi:
Amid a series of suspensions in Parliament, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan has highlighted a slightly different kind of problem faced by opposition parliamentarians who have not yet been suspended. “Donkey bath itna bhayanak hai “(Our bathrooms) are terrible,” Ms. Bachchan said after walking out of the Rajya Sabha in protest against the suspension.
She also accused Rajya Sabha Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar of not allowing her to speak.
“We have been trying to talk since morning. The council leader said we will see how patient you are. The council proceedings will continue until 11pm tonight. They are taking water and taking bathroom breaks every five minutes. Even our toilets are terrible,” she told NDTV.
The actor-turned-politician also criticized the Center for trying to pass the bills without any discussion: “They are using unfair and unjust procedures. If you want to pass the bill, do it this way. What is the point of saying ‘yes’ and no? Why this drama?”
The Opposition benches in both houses appeared to be deserted today as 49 members were suspended today in addition to the 78 members who faced the same action yesterday. To date, 141 opposition MPs have been suspended from parliament.
The latest round of suspension came after Opposition members, who demanded a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the December 13 security breach in the Lok Sabha, raised slogans and disrupted the proceedings of the House which witnessed repeated adjournments since the morning.
The opposition described the unprecedented measure as “murder of democracy” and claimed that the government wanted a “less oppositional” parliament to “bulldoze” important legislation without debate.
Two other women Rajya Sabha MPs – Trinamool Congress’s Dula Sen and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi – were also accompanying Ms Bachchan. They are the only women MPs who have not been suspended from the Rajya Sabha.
Giving reasons for their walkout, Ms Chaturvedi said: “The President said he was hurt when someone made fun of him while sitting on the steps of Parliament. We were also hurt when someone attacked the temple of democracy. Someone needs to fix accountability and accountability.” “The Home Secretary is the one who can do that, but we feel hurt that he is prioritizing his ego over Parliament.”
“It hurts us that they are suspending the protesting parliamentarians from work, and it hurts us that they are using pick and choose for this purpose. It hurts us that the bills are passed without any discussion or discussion. They have created a new history in the new parliament by suspending the work of a record number of representatives,” she added. “We hope the president will pay attention to our pain as well, which is why we withdrew.”
The Rajya Sabha Speaker expressed his pain over the suspended Trinamool MP imitating him during a protest in the Parliament building.
After being suspended from Parliament, the leaders staged a protest on the steps of the building when Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee broke into an impromptu skit mocking Vice President Dhankar. Rahul Gandhi was seen capturing the scene on his phone, sparking a political controversy.
This sparked sharp reactions from the BJP with the Rajya Sabha president himself describing the opposition’s actions as “shameful” and an “insult” to his background as a farmer and his “position as a Jat”.
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