The Rajya Sabha (Upper house of the Indian Parliament) on Thursday suspended more MPs (member of the parliament) including AAP MPs Sushil Gupta of New Delhi and Sandeep Pathak of Punjab and Independent MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan of Asaam, taking the number of suspended MPs this monsoon session to 27.
The members of the parliament are protesting against the GST hike on food and essential items.
Earlier, twenty Rajya Sabha members (upper house of the parliament) on Wednesday, July 27 started a 50-hour relay protest inside the Parliament premises and were later joined by four Congress MPs who have also been suspended from Lok Sabha for the Monsoon session.
The 20 MPs, suspended on Monday and Tuesday, include seven from the TMC Trinamool Congress, six from the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), three from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), two from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and one each from the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The suspended MPs are now being joined by other parties. The Nationalist Congress Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha who have no members suspended are also joining the protests, reported The Wire.
They are protesting near the Gandhi Statue at the Parliament, since the monsoon session began on July 18, the Opposition has been demanding a discussion on issues such as inflation, GST on essential items, and LPG price hike.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the MP from Wayanad in Kerala, tweeted, “Why cylinder Rs 1053? Why GST on curd-cereals? Why Mustard Oil Rs 200? The ‘Raja’ arrested 57 MPs and suspended 23 MPs for asking questions on inflation and unemployment. The ‘king’ is afraid of questions in the temple of democracy, but we know how to fight dictators.”
Meanwhile, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi responded to the Opposition’s protests and said that the ruling government is ready to talk on the price rise but the MPs must apologies for bringing and showing placards into the parliament.
“We have been maintaining that the government is ready for discussion on price rise and today Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman resumed her office after recovering from Covid. Their suspension can be revoked by the Chair if they apologise and assure that they will not again bring placards into the House.”
Here's what will got costly from 18 July:
· LED lamps; ink, knives, blades, pencil sharpener, blades, spoons, forks, ladles, skimmers, skimmers, cake servers; printing, writing and drawing ink; fixture and their metal printed circuits board by 18 per cent
· Power-driven pumps, bicycle pumps, dairy machinery by 18 per cent
· Machines used for cleaning, sorting, grading seeds, and grain pulses; machines used in milling/cereals industry; air-based atta chakki and wet grinder by 18 per cent
· Cheques, lose or in book form by 18 per cent
· Solar water heater and system by 12 per cent
· Leather (prepared, finished, chamois and composition) by 12 per cent
· Printed maps and charts of all kinds by 12 per cent 12 per cent
· GST on hotel accommodation priced up to Rs 1,000 per day
· Room rent, except ICU, more than Rs 5,000 per day patient charged by a hospital taxed 5 per cent to the extent of charge of the room without ITC Works contract for roads, bridges, railways, metro, effluent treatment plant, crematorium and others by 18 per cent
· 18 per cent GST for work contract for historical monuments, canals, dams, pipelines, plants for water supply, educational institutions, hospitals etc supplied to central, state goverments and local authorities and sub-contractor thereof
· Works contract supplied to central and state governments, union territories & local authorities for earthwork and sub-contracts thereof 12 per cent