Derek’s move in RS brings back memories of Mamata’s action in 2015

New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) One enduring image connected to the tumultuous Rajya Sabha proceedings on Sunday that will remain etched in public memory is of Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien tearing documents right in front of the Chair.

The former quizz master’s act has made the BJP accuse him of emulating her party leader Mamata Banerjee, who angrily threw papers in the Lok Sabha in 2005.

“Mamata Banerjee has always been performing such acts — be it in the Assembly or the Parliament. Derek O’Brien is just emulating what he has seen and learnt in all these years,” BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS.

In 2005, Banerjee, then a member of the 14th Lok Sabha, had moved a motion to discuss the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators, calling it a “very serious matter”.

Banerjee’s motion was to drive home the point that Bangladeshi nationals were on the voters’ list in West Bengal, implying this was helping the then ruling Left Front.

After veteran CPI-M leader and then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee turned it down, Banerjee became aggressive. She not only accused the Chair of bias, but also approached the then presiding officer and Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal and flung a bundle of papers at the Chair. She later resigned from her seat.

On Sunday, an otherwise suave and composed Derek O’Brien had approached Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh and allegedly tore documents right in front of the presiding officer.

An aggressive O’Brien also shouted ‘Kala Kanoon’ (black law) at the Chair over the passage of the contentious agriculture-related Bills in the Upper House.

What followed was a bedlam, with House marshals trying to help restore normalcy even as other Opposition lawmakers trooped into the Well of the Rajya Sabha, leading to subsequent suspension of eight Rajya Sabha MPs, including O’Brien.

–IANS

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