Rajya Sabha adjourned twice over MPs' suspensions

New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice Thursday following persistent demands from opposition MPs for revoking the suspension of seven members who had been physically evicted from the house Tuesday during the debate on the Women's Reservation Bill.

As soon as the house met for the day, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said the house had witnessed some unfortunate scenes and disrespect was also shown to the chair.

He regreted the incident on behalf of opposition. "Some MPs were abstaining from the proceedings because their colleagues have been suspended. We urge the government to bring a motion to revoke the suspension," Jaitley said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the suspended MPs should express their regrets to create a congenial atmosphere in the house.

Congress MP Jayanti Natarajan also said "they should apologise".

The opposition created a ruckus over this and Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the house for 15 minutes, saying he found the conduct of the suspended MPs "reprehensible and disgusting".

When the house re-assembled at 11.30 a.m., the opposition MPs were again on their feet over the issue and Ansari adjourned the house till 12 noon.

On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left had supported the demand of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for withdrawing the suspension of the seven members.

The suspended MPs are Kamal Akhtar, Veerpal Singh Yadav, Amir Alam Khan and Nand Kishore Yadav (all SP), Ejaz Ali (Janata Dal-United), Sabir Ali (Lok Janshakti Party) and Subhash Prasad Yadav (RJD).

They had created pandemonium near the chairman's podium Monday after he instructed Law Minister Veerappa Moily to move the Women's Reservation Bill for consideration. They continued their protests Tuesday, following which Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Prithivraj Chavan moved a resolution for their suspension that the house adopted.

However, the seven MPs continued to squat in the well of the house for over three hours, following which marshals of the Watch and Ward Staff were summoned to physically evict them from the house.