Farm Bills Row: 8 Suspended Rajya Sabha MPs Spend Night Outside Parliament In Protest, Refuse Deputy Chairmans Tea; PM Modi Backs Harivansh Narain Singh

Eight opposition members of the Rajya Sabha were suspended on September 21 for the rest of the session over the chaos in the House during passing of the farm bills on September 20. The suspended MPs spent the night on the lawns of the parliament complex and declared that they were on an indefinite protest. They had on September 21 refused to leave the Rajya Sabha, which was adjourned five times. When the members, including Trinamool Congress's Derek O'Brien, Aam Aadmi Party's Sanjay Singh, Congress's Rajeev Satav and CPM's KK Ragesh, did leave the Rajya Sabha, they moved their protest to the parliament lawns, near Mahatma Gandhi's statue. The suspended MPs spread out sheets and sat holding up placards that read - "We will fight for farmers" and "parliament assassinated". On the morning of September 22, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narain Singh walked over to them and offered them tea, but they rebuffed his "tea diplomacy", calling him "anti-farmer".