Opposition to boycott Rajya Sabha till 3 demands are met, suspended MPs end dharna

Eight suspended members of the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday ended their day-long protest following a request by the opposition leaders who also urged them to join in the boycott of the ongoing Monsoon Session.

The agitating MPs said that it was not about revocation of their suspension but withdrawal of the "draconian" farm Bills.

"We have ended our protest but will join in the boycott of the session," Syed Nasser Hussain, one of the suspended Congress MPs, said. His party colleague Rajeev Satav, who too was suspended, said that their protests will move from Parliament to the streets.

"All the opposition parties have boycotted the rest of the session (in Rajya Sabha), nobody is attending the session. They appealed to us to withdraw the dharna and since nobody is attending the session till the suspension is revoked, there is no point in continuing with the dharna," Congress MP Nasser Hussain added.

The opposition has jointly decided to boycott the session till their three demands on the new agri Bills are met by the Union government.

"Till our three demands are not met, the opposition will boycott the session. We seek revocation of the suspension of the eight MPs, another Bill under which no private player can purchase farm produce below MSP, and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations."

"No one is happy with the incidents that have taken place in the Upper House. The public wants that their leaders should be heard. No one can put across their views in just a few minutes. There will be de-escalation if MPs are not constrained by time to speak," added Azad, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

While Azad said that the root cause of the dispute is "lack of coordination and time constraint", Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said that he had apologised for conduct of the members, and hence the suspension of lawmakers must be revoked.

However, as there was no response from the Chair, the party "decided to boycott the session".

Jairam Ramesh, Chief Whip of the Congress in the House, gave seven reasons for the boycott of the session and alleged that the government is "bulldozing" the Bills.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu meanwhile "appealed to the opposition to reconsider their decision".

With agencies input