After being suspended from Rajya Sabha for recording Parliamentary proceedings, Congress MP Rajani Patil denied doing any such activity that breached the rules and regulations of the House. Flanked by leaders of all Opposition parties like Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan and Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, Patil said that she has been “hanged without any crime.”
“I come from the family of freedom fighters. I have not been brought up to not adhere to rules and regulations. People from my family have even been hanged fighting for freedom of the country. It was wrong on their part to insult us,” she said speaking to The New Indian.
Jaya Bachchan intervened and said, “your crime is that you are a woman.”
Patil told the media that her ouster from the Rajya Sabha for the remaining of the Budget session was in response to BJP’s frustration. “They are frustrated that we heckled the Prime Minister during his speech. That’s why they manufactured these allegations.”
Patil, 64, is the All India Congress Committee In-charge for Jammu & Kashmir. She represents Maharashtra in the Upper House.
Patil was suspended for tweeting a video from inside the House where Opposition MPs were seen protesting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response to the Motion of Thanks on Thursday. Calling it an “unwholesome activity” Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has taken a “serious view” on the matter.
“In public domain on Thursday, on Twitter, there was a dissemination of a video relating to proceedings of this House…Rajani Ashokrao Patil engaged in this unwholesome activity and what has been seen is a matter that must engage our attention,” Dhakhar said.
In the video, several members of the Opposition parties were seen protesting and raising slogans with the demand of formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the Adani Group in the aftermath of the accusations of stock manipulation made by the US-based investment research firm Hindenburg.
PM Modi did not address the matter at all in his Parliamentary speeches over the last two days, complained the Opposition. On Thursday, members of the Opposition heckled the Prime Minister through out the duration of his 90 minutes speech in which he launched a scathing attack on the Congress for the scams, arbitrary use of Article 356, and not appreciating the hard work of the scientists who developed Covid vaccine, while allegedly lobbying for foreign vaccines.
The Government and members of the Opposition have been locked in a war of words over allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud against Adani Group and demand for a probe into the financial dealings of Adani Group by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.