Trinamool MP Sushmita Dev flags off censorship of voices of opposition in the House

Logic and logic are not enough to win a debate in Parliament. The monsoon session has seen hardly any business since it began on June 18. Rajya Sabha, Assembly of the Elders, Have seen many disruptions and postponements After vigorous protest by the opposition members.

The two members – Trinamool Congress’s Sushmita Dev and Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh – have become megaphones for the opposition until they are suspended along with 21 others this week, which have called for a discussion on the hike in essential prices. United Front was formed. Goods.

with coordinated slogans attacking the government and placards with catchy captionsThe last two weeks have seen strong protests in the Rajya Sabha.

Ms. Dev says when opposition parties get involved in issues, things turn out well. “The general agreement is to reflect the mood of the nation as the government is not allowing debate. When Sanjay Singh raises slogans, we raise them, our slogans are a mixture of Hindi and Bengali…. Ms. Dev. was one of the first batch of 19 members who were suspended From Rajya Sabha on 26 July. The suspension is till July 29.

She says the party gives one or two members the responsibility of getting the placards printed and brought them to the House.

Mr Singh says he is serving notices under Rule 267 for suspending day-to-day business to discuss issues such as price hike, levy of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the poisonous liquor tragedy in Gujarat, in which now Till now 42 people have lost their lives. The government has refused to take cognizance.

“I have been in politics for the last 27 years, I have worked for street vendors for 17 years, raising slogans is not a new thing for me. It is just that my efforts have been met by all the members of the well. Everyone does their work by raising their voices in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Bengali, which can also be heard,” said Mr Singh, who was in his 20s. ^th The member is to be suspended from the Rajya Sabha on July 27. Three more members were suspended on Thursday.

Ms. Dev claims that there is complete censorship of the opposition on Rajya Sabha Television (RSTV), renamed as Sansad TV, and they are forced to bring up placards to raise their voices and make themselves heard. On July 21, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said placards were not allowed in the House and the members who brought them would be named in the bulletin for carrying objectionable material. Parliamentary Customs and Conventions, as codified in the ‘Booklet for Members of the Rajya Sabha’, according to one official, “produces display on the Table of the House is not in order.”

“Please watch RSTV…. You can censor us when we are in the Well of the House, but when the leaders of opposition parties stand on their seats – Derek O’Brien, Sanjay Raut, Mallikarjun Kharge ji – at least Show them. If you are going to control the cameras to censor the members who are not even in the well then we are forced to bring placards,” said Ms. Dev.

She says that even when the House is in place, the cameras are most of the time focused on the Speaker and not when the opposition member is speaking. “They give us as little visibility as possible, the kind of censorship that is going on in the country, going around inside the House as well,” she said.

Ms. Dev joined the All India Trinamool Congress last year after leaving the Indian National Congress. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Trinamool Congress and was elected unopposed in September 2021.