Buoyed by victory, TMC goes full blast against BJP as first Parliament session after Bengal polls begins

TMC MPs rides bicycle to Parliament to protest fuel hikes, join Congress to question nationality of new MoS for Home Affairs

Buoyed by its landslide victory in West Bengal assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress went on the offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament.

The Trinamool Congress MPs on Monday not only rode bicycles to Parliament to protest rising prices of fuel, but also joined the members of other parties in stalling proceedings of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha — not allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce his new Council of Ministers. Mamata Banerjee’s party later protested when the Prime Minister was introducing his new ministers, as they included Nishith Pramanik whose nationality had of late come into question.

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Pramanik, who was with the Trinamool Congress till March 2019, is now a BJP MP from West Bengal. He was among the new ministers inducted into Modi’s Council of Ministers on July 7. He was appointed as a Minister of State of Home Affairs. A Congress MP from Assam, Ripun Bora, however, demanded a probe into his nationality, citing media reports that the new minister was actually a citizen of Bangladesh.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the TMC sought to raise a Point of Order in the Rajya Sabha over the same issue along with Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress. The Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, Harivansh Narayan Singh, however, did not allow the Point of Order despite protests by the Opposition.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal accused opposition parties of insulting the community to which the new minister belonged. The newly appointed leader of the House demanded that the comments of Roy and Kharge on the nationality of Pramanik should be expunged from the record of the proceedings.

The TMC, which stalled the BJP’s foray into West Bengal, is now planning to expand its footprints beyond the state and set to observe its annual Martyrs’ Day virtually across the country on Wednesday. CM Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, the newly-appointed national general secretary of the party, are expected to step up attacks on the Modi government.

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Derek O’Brien, a TMC MP in the Rajya Sabha, said that leaders of some of the like-minded political parties might also join in the event, which would be held virtually in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The party MPs on Monday served notices in both the Houses of Parliament to raise a host of issues, ranging from rising prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, alleged failure of the Modi government in dealing with the second wave of the Covid-19 effectively and shortage of vaccines, decline in economic growth and the continuing protest by the farmers against the new agricultural laws.

O’Brien said that the party MPs would continue to raise the issues in both Houses of Parliament all through the monsoon session.

He said that the party had no objection to the PM introducing his new Cabinet and would have allowed him to do so if the new ministers did not include a citizen of Bangladesh.

O’Brien, however, did not clarify if the party MPs would protest when the new minister would respond to questions or make statements on behalf of the government in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.