Kalyan Banerjee hits out at TMC rebels after Lok Sabha suspension
NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Wednesday lashed out at the rebel Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) faction after he was suspended from the Lok Sabha for the remainder of the Monsoon Session, calling its members ‘traitors’ and questioning what his suspension would achieve.His remarks came after the Lok Sabha suspended him for the rest of the session over allegations of indecent behaviour and the use of ‘unsavoury’ and misogynistic language against women MPs following a heated exchange with NCPI members inside the House.Speaking to reporters after his suspension, Banerjee questioned the move and targeted the rebel MPs.“What will they get by suspending me from here?… It is a party of barely twenty people. They (20 TMC rebel MPs) held a meeting in Kolkata after a month and a half. They do not even have twenty voters. They have nothing. Not a single person has voted for them in West Bengal… They are all traitors and dishonest people… The government will fall after a year,” Banerjee said. Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved a motion in the Lok Sabha seeking Banerjee’s suspension after the Speaker received a written complaint alleging that the TMC leader had displayed ‘unprecedented behaviour’ and used objectionable and misogynistic language against women MPs, including NCPI members and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav. The motion was adopted by a voice vote, following which Banerjee was suspended for the remainder of the Monsoon Session, which is scheduled to conclude on August 13.Earlier in the day, Banerjee was involved in a heated exchange with several of his former party colleagues, including NCPI MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Mitali Bagh and Shatabdi Roy, inside the Lok Sabha chamber after proceedings were adjourned. Other opposition MPs intervened to defuse the situation before the NCPI members later approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over the incident.The suspension follows weeks of controversy surrounding Banerjee’s alleged conduct in Parliament. In June, NCPI leader and former TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar had written to Speaker Om Birla seeking his expulsion from the Lok Sabha, accusing him of repeatedly using objectionable, disrespectful and misogynistic language against women MPs.Dastidar had described Banerjee as a ‘habitual offender’ and demanded action, saying no member should be allowed to repeatedly insult women inside Parliament.The latest confrontation also comes against the backdrop of a split within the Trinamool Congress after 20 MPs broke away from the party following its defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections and joined the NCPI.The rebel MPs now sit separately in the Lok Sabha and have declared support for the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Banerjee has remained with the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.
