From The Newsroom: Eight opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha suspended, PM Modi defends Farm Bills

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, eight opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha suspended; PM Modi defends farm reform bills and non-NDA parties ask the president not to ratify the Farm Bills.

Here are the top stories of today.

Eight opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha, including TMC leader Derek O'Brien and Sanjay Singh of AAP, were on Monday suspended for the remainder of the Monsoon session of Parliament for "unruly behaviour" during the passage of two farm bills, leading to protests and washing out of proceedings. The suspended members refused to leave the House which witnessed multiple adjournments. A motion for the suspension of the eight including Rajeev Satav, Syed Nasir Hussain and Ripun Bora (all Cong), Dola Sen (TMC), KK Ragesh and Elamaram Kareen (all CPM) was moved by the government and approved by a voice vote in the House. This came after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected a notice for a no-confidence motion against deputy chairman Harivansh as it was not in proper format and did not give a 14-day notice period.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Monday that the Farm Bills passed by Parliament were the need of 21 century India and again reassured farmers that the government purchase of their produce coupled with the minimum support price mechanism will continue.

With opposition parties vehemently criticising the legislations as "anti-farmers" and protests continuing in states like Punjab and Haryana, Modi again mounted a strong defence of these measures, saying farmers will now have the freedom to sell their produce at a place and price of their choice.

Attacking critics, he said a "clique" of people exploited farmers for long as they remained in shackles of rules regulating the sale of their produce and stated that this needed to change, which his government has done.

A day after two contentious farm bills were passed by Rajya Sabha amid a bedlam, a number of non-NDA parties wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind over the manner in which the government "pushed through its agenda" and urged him not to grant his assent to the proposed legislations.

According to sources, leaders of various political parties including the Congress, the Left parties, NCP, DMK, SP, Trinamool Congress and the RJD have in a memorandum to the President sought his intervention in the matter and asked him not to sign the bills.

The bills will become a law only after the President grants his assent to them.

A fire broke out at a dedicated Covid-19 hospital in Jagatpur town in Odisha's Cuttack district on Monday, fire officials said. No loss of human life has been reported so far, DG (Fire Service) Satyajit Mohanty said. A total of 127 coronavirus patients being treated at the hospital were evacuated and shifted to other medical establishments, he said. The fire broke out in the afternoon at the ICU on the ground floor, Dr Samita Mohanty said.

There cannot be a "universal policy" on right to protest and possible curbs as also balancing it with acts like blocking of roads are needed because the situation may "vary" from case-to-case, the Supreme Court said on Monday. The top court's observation came while reserving the verdict on a batch of pleas against the anti-CAA protests which had led to blocking of a road in Shaheen Bagh in the national capital last December. The situation normalized later due to Covid-19 pandemic fear and subsequent observance of protocol. Taking note of the submissions of lawyers including Shashank Deo Sudhi, the bench said: "We have to balance right to protest and the blocking of roads. We have to deal with the issue. There cannot be universal policy as the situation may vary on case to case basis.

A Delhi court has dismissed an application by former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, arrested under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, seeking permission to meet his family during his police custody.

Khalid is in police custody for 10 days, till September 24, in a case related to the large conspiracy in the communal violence in north east Delhi in February.

He was arrested on September 13 and the next day the court allowed police to interrogate him in its custody saying it was a fit case for police custody remand. The cops had said they wanted to confront him with documents running into 11 lakh pages.