NEW DELHI: Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju defended the deployment of CISF personnel in the Rajya Sabha’s Well, citing instances where MPs had physically climbed atop the treasury bench and assured Congress that no MP would be stopped from speaking. Earlier, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge expressed concerns on Friday over CISF personnel deployment. Condemning the move, Kharge said, “We expect that in the future, CISF personnel will not come trooping into the well of the House when Members are raising important issues of public concern.”
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Responding to Kharge’s concern, Rijju said, “It was Parliament members’ demand to increase security, therefore CISF was deployed. Inside the house, members have sometimes physically taken a stand atop the treasury table and near the Well. Security has been deployed to stop them from doing this. No MPs will be stopped from speaking.”He clarified that CISF personnel would remain passive unless MPs engaged in disruptive behaviour, ANI reported.The Union Minister stated, “Marshals and security inside the House will not take any action till the time MPs indulge in something malicious. Some MPs went aggressive, and therefore arrangements were made to stop them.”On Friday, Rajya Sabha opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge sent a letter to deputy chairman Harivansh, expressing disapproval of CISF personnel deployment during Opposition protests.Kharge wrote, “We are astonished and shocked at the manner in which CISF personnel are made to run into the Well of the House when the Members are exercising their democratic right of protest”Congress MP Pramod Tiwari criticised the government, noting that female MPs were intercepted by male CISF personnel.“Today is a sad and dark day in Indian democracy. Commandos have been deployed. Some are saying it is CISF, some are saying something else. They forcefully stopped the members from going to the staff. Our women members were stopped. Men stopped them,” Tiwari told reporters.
