The Congress party's Rajya Sabha members from Assam are planning to write a letter of complaint to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. What is unusual about the letter is that addressed to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, it will actually be complaining about him.

Sources in the Congress party said these MPs plan to complain that "the Chairman has been unfair to them," as they weren't allowed adequate time to speak on the crucial National Register For Citizen (NRC) that is impacting people in Assam.

Final call on the letter will be taken today by Congress' leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad. Five Congress Rajya Sabha MPs are expected to sign this letter.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a Congress member of Rajya Sabha from Assam, skipped being a part of this unique protest.

The proposal came up after a stormy day in the House during which the Opposition targeted BJP chief Amit Shah and did not allow him to conclude his speech on the National Register for Citizens.

During the ruckus, Naidu had reprimanded the Opposition by saying that seeing members "menacingly storm the Well" on Monday and "disrupting proceedings was unacceptable".

The Opposition is miffed with the scathing attack Shah had launched against those opposing the NRC saying that it is "the soul of the Assam accord which then PM Rajiv Gandhi had signed". He had said that the Congress started the NRC process in 2005 but failed to 'summon the courage to throw out illegal Bangladeshi immigrants because the vote bank was important for the party compared to national security and rights of citizens'.

On this, the Opposition led by Congress leader Anand Sharma demanded an apology from Shah for insulting the former prime minister.

The ruling party members rose in unison to defend their party chief. As Shah tried to finish his speech, the Opposition kept disrupting him. Naidu then reprimanded the opposition leaders for how they were conducting in the House.

Later in the day, Naidu dismissed the Opposition's demand for allocating time for a discussion on the NRC. The Chair ruled that a discussion on the issue would be held once the government and the Opposition arrived at a consensus.

Frustrated, the opposition MPs charged that they were not getting adequate time to speak on an issue that could impact the lives of 40 lakh-odd people, whose names have not appeared in the final draft of the NRC.

The Congress Assam MPs then proposed that they would like to lodge a protest against the Chair's ruling.

Since the chairman is the boss of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress party high command has decided that the leader of opposition would adjudicate whether the letter of complaint should be sent to the chairman.

Sources say that the Congress, which is trailing behind the TMC on the NRC issue, is desperately trying to position itself as the main challenger to the Modi government.



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