Parliament Security Breach: A total of 92 Members of Parliament has been suspended for the remainder of the ongoing Winter Session, scheduled to end on 22 December. Ruckus in Parliament ensued after the 13 December Parliament security breach incident, with Opposition MPs seeking a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
On Monday, in a a rather unprecedented move, 78 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament within a day, marking the highest number of suspensions from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. The move triggered a strong reaction from the Congress and other parties that accused the BJP government of trying to bulldoze key legislations in an “Opposition-less” Parliament.
On Monday, 33 MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha, including Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. This was followed by Rajya Sabha where 45 leaders were suspended after the Opposition refused to budge on their demand for a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah.
Monday’s action has taken the total number of opposition MPs suspended from both houses to 92 since last Thursday on the issue.
AAP member Sanjay Singh has been suspended as a Rajya Sabha member from 24 July.
On Thursday, the Lok Sabha suspended 13 members for the remaining part of the Winter Session for waving placards and disrupting proceedings over the Parliament security breach issue.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Derek O’Brien was suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of the Winter Session citing “unruly conduct”.
In the Lok Sabha, 33 members, including floor leaders of the Congress and DMK – the two large parties in the opposition, were suspended on Monday for unruly behaviour. While 30 members were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session in Lok Sabha, three members were suspended, pending the report of the Privileges Committee.
The three — K Jayakumar, Vijay Vasanth and Abdul Khaleque — had climbed on the Speaker’s podium to raise slogans.
The suspension triggered a political slugfest with opposition members terming the action as a “murder of democracy” and BJP MP and Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal claiming that the action was necessary as the opposition MPs insulted the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of trying to bulldoze important draft legislation in an “Opposition-less” Parliament. “With an Opposition-Less Parliament, the Modi Government can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate,” Kharge said on X.
The government has listed three bills replacing the colonial era criminal law for consideration and passing in Parliament, besides the draft legislation to provide for a mechanism to appoint Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners is pending passage from the Lok Sabha.
In 1989, 63 members of the Lok Sabha were suspended on March 15 for the remaining part of the week over the issue of tabling of the report of the Justice Thakkar Committee that inquired into the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
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Published: 18 Dec 2023, 09:31 PM IST