Kolkata: Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy on Sunday wrote a letter to the chairman of Rajya Sabha demanding immediate probe on how former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi was allowed to speak during the Budget session, despite his name not featuring on the speakers' list.
“The incident as narrated hereinabove and the manner in which Sri Trivedi on February 12 grossly misutilised [sic.] the floor of the House for his devious political ends and also the way he was allowed to have taken the House for a ride is absolutely unprecedented, unwarranted and is devoid of not only decorum and etiquette as envisaged in ‘Rajya Sabha at Work’, but also against all rules, norms and traditions of this august House,” the letter stated along with an urge to constitute an enquiry on the same.
Roy, the chief whip in the House, also mentioned that the TMC had recommended only two names for speakers -- Abir Ranjan Biswas and Roy himself -- to take part in the discussion of Union Budget 2021-22.
“Both the speakers’ time was exhausted, despite how Trivedi was allowed to speak for four minutes,” Roy questioned.
Notably, Trivedi had, during the budget session at Rajya Sabha on February 12, announced his ‘dramatic’ resignation from party post citing a feeling of being ‘suffocated’ within the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Following the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls against BJP’s Arjun Singh from the Barrackpore constituency, Trivedi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha last year.
It is pertinent to mention that in the middle of the discussion over the Union Budget, Trivedi rose and said that while he was listening to the speakers around him, he had reached a point of reflection. He claimed that his ‘conscience’ had forced him to take the decision to quit from the post after looking at ‘the kind of violence taking place in West Bengal’.