Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shantanu Sen has been suspended for the rest of the Monsoon Session on Friday (July 23), after tearing up a statement prepared by Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the Pegasus row.
Yesterday the monsoon session of Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned after TMC MP Santanu Sen, following in the footsteps of Mamata Banerjee, snatched a statement paper from Ashwini Vaishnaw and tore it to pieces as the minister rose to address the Pegasus snoop-gate controversy.
On the eve of the monsoon session, the now-debunked Pegasus snoop scandal erupted, and when IT Minister Vaishnaw began to make a statement on the phone-tapping allegations, TMC MP Sen rushed to the Well of the House and snatched the paper from Vaishnaw’s hands, while opposition MPs rushed to the Well and raised anti-government slogans.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was present when the horrific act was committed, urged the protesting MPs to return to their seats and allow Vaishnaw to finish his statement, but the minister was unable to do so due to the snatching and tearing of the paper, which he instead laid a copy of on the House table.
BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta in an interview to ANI said, “It seems that some people of Opposition, notably some of the TMC MPs, got up & took the paper from the hands of the Minister (IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while he was speaking on ‘Pegasus’) & tore it up. This is completely unseemly behaviour.”
“He was making a statement, you had a right to question him after that but instead of going in for a debate, is this the type of hooliganism we see inside the House? This is completely against all norms, I think it should be condemned outright,” he added.
The opposition once again ensured that the parliament’s Monsoon Session, which took place in the midst of the Covid epidemic, failed to conduct any business due to the opposition’s constant disruption.
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