Mukul Roy disapproves of Trinamool joining Left in Rajya Sabha

Kolkata, March 7 (IANS) Sidelined Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy on Saturday disapproved of his party joining hands with Left parties and others to pass an amendment in the Rajya Sabha to the motion of thanks on the president's address to parliament.

Once a close aide of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, Roy also said the West Bengal chief minister's decision to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a debt waiver, has come a tad too late.

Expressing his displeasure over the way he was handed over the whip on a piece of paper to vote on party lines in the Rajya Sabha, Roy said bringing an amendment to the motion of thanks was against parliamentary tradition.

"Be it the president's speech or the governor's address, there is a tradition attached and usually nobody brings an amendment to that. It's not that this has not happened before, but it does not work in favour of the tradition of parliament and the constitution," Roy said here.

"I don't know, those who issued the whip and joined hands with the CPI-M for voting, whether they have done this after consulting the topmost leadership in the party. But, I feel it would have been better, had this not happened," said Roy who has been removed as Trinamool's general secretary.

The Modi government Tuesday had to face a major embarrassment when the opposition joined hands to pass an amendment to the motion of thanks to the president's address - only the fourth in the 67 years of parliamentary history.

Previously in 1980, 1989 and 2001, the motion of thanks was adopted with amendments.

Roy described Banerjee's decision to call on Modi as a positive step but insisted she should have done it before.

"It's not a matter pertaining to the party, rather of democracy, that the chief minister is going to the prime minister to protect the rights of the state. While it is a very positive step, I feel it would have been better had this step been taken a bit earlier," said Roy, admitting that the huge debt burden was an obstacle in the state's development.

Banerjee is scheduled to meet Modi on March 9 for the first time since he took over the reigns of the country last year.