From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Rajni Ashokrao Patil (64), from Maharashtra and in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir in the Congress, was on Friday suspended for the remainder of the current budget session from the Rajya Sabha and till House gets a report from the privilege committee for videographing the House proceedings on Thursday when the Opposition was raising slogans during Prime Minister Modi’s reply on the motion of thanks to President Murmu for her address to the joint session of Parliament.
Her act was reported by BJP member GVL Narsimha Rao to Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who treated as very serious, and accepted his resolution to suspend her after hearing various leaders for an hour.
Just before the House adopted the resolution, Patil said the Chairman acted at the instance of the BJP members who wanted to humiliate her. A score of Congress leaders, including Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Pramod Tiwari and Shaktisinh Gohil defended her, pleading that she was not obstructing the House nor was she habitual defaulter to punish her. They even urged the Chairman to be lenient.
The Chairman, however, said such an act of videographing the House during the unruly scenes by the opposition members cannot be tolerated. Initially, he did not name Patil, but later decided to name her.
