Opposition MPs demand government’s response on US deportation, leading to uproar and adjournment during Zero Hour.
New Delhi:�Opposition members on Thursday demanded answers from the government on the deportation of 104 Indians from the US, leading to noisy scenes and adjournment during the Zero Hour.Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar later informed the Upper House that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had approached him to make a statement on the issue at 2 pm and that he had allowed him to do so.
Shortly after the start of the day's proceedings, several opposition MPs raised the issue of the deportation of Indian immigrants from the US. Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for about an hour during the pre-noon session without transacting any business as the opposition MPs tried to raise the issue.
MPs from the Congress, CPI, TMC, AAP, and the CPI(M) gave notices under Rule 267 that seeks to set aside the day's listed business to take up a discussion on the issue being raised through them. The chair rejected all the notices.
The opposition MPs then stood in their places and raised the issue. They said the US had deported Indian immigrants in a military plane in the most inhuman manner and that they were not being allowed to raise the issue in the House.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was in the chair, first ordered that the opposition MPs' utterances would not go on record and then adjourned the proceedings till 12 noon when they persisted with their demand.
Those who gave notices under Rule 267 included CPI's Santosh Kumar P, TMC's Saket Gokhale, CPI(M) MP V Sivadasan and the Congress' Anil Kumar Yadav, Shaktisinh Gohil, Pramod Tiwari, Renuka Chaudhary, and Ashok Singh.
A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.�
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