A total of 92 parliamentarians will remain suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session as 78 Opposition members were suspended from Parliament on Monday. They raised a vociferous din in both Houses over the Parliament security breach issues, resulting in the suspension of 33 members from the Lok Sabha and 45 from the Rajya Sabha.
With the suspension of 78 members, the total number of suspended parliamentarians now stands at 92. The Opposition, led by the Congress, termed it “Democracy Suspended”. On December 14, a total of 14 MPs (13 in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha) were suspended.
The issue is likely to escalate amid the growing rift between the Opposition and the treasury benches. The Centre is determined to table important pending Bills, and the Opposition, under the INDIA bloc meeting on Tuesday, will see participation by TMC supremo West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, and other top leaders like Sharad Pawar and Lalu Prasad.
Defending the suspensions, the BJP accused the Congress and its allies of “insulting” the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairperson and “embarrassing” the country with their conduct.
Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, told reporters that Opposition members brought placards and willfully disrupted parliamentary proceedings, despite the earlier decision that placards would not be allowed in the houses.
The Congress slammed the government over the suspension, claiming that an “extreme level of dictatorship” was in place, and “democracy has been suspended.”
Soon after the suspension of 33 Opposition Lok Sabha MPs, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms have been thrown into the dustbin by this “autocratic” government, which has shown zero accountability towards Parliament.
Forty-five Opposition members in the Upper House were suspended for unruly behaviour and disregarding the directions of the Chair, as they raised slogans over the Parliament security breach issue and disrupted proceedings. Among those suspended were Congress MPs Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, and Randeep Singh Surjewala, as well as Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav.
The development occurred soon after 33 Opposition members, including leader of Congress Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK’s TR Baalu, and TMC’s Sougata Ray, were suspended from the Lok Sabha following similar scenes in the Lower House.
While 34 of the Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session, 11 have been directed to stay away from the House pending an inquiry report on their conduct by the Committee of Privileges.
The members were suspended after the House adopted a motion moved by Goyal for the suspension of 34 MPs for the remainder of the Session and another one for referring cases of conduct of 11 other Opposition MPs to the privileges committee.
The Committee has been asked to submit its report within three months, and the 11 MPs will not be able to attend the proceedings of the House until then. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar first named the suspended members and then put the motion to vote, which was adopted by a voice vote.
The Opposition members were creating a din in the House while demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach in the Lok Sabha and were raising slogans, disrupting proceedings of the House that saw repeated adjournments.
Among the 34 suspended for the remainder of the Session, 12 MPs are from the Congress.
The suspended members are Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, Amee Yajnik, Naranbhai J Rathwa, Syed Nasir Hussain, Shrimati Phulo Devi Netam, Shaktisinh Gohil, KC Venugopal, Rajani Ashokrao Patil, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi, Randeep Singh Surjewala (all of Congress), while seven members are from TMC Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Santanu Sen, Mausam Noor, Prakash Chik Baraik, and Samirul Islam.
Others suspended for the winter session are M Shanmugam, N. R. Elango, Kanimozhi NVN Somu, R. Girirajan, Manoj Kumar Jha, Faiyaz Ahmad V. Sivadasan, Ram Nath Thakur, Aneel Prasad Hegde, Vandana Chavan, Ram Gopal Yadav, Javed Ali Khan, Mahua Maji, Jose K. Mani, and Ajit Kumar Bhuyan.
The 11 opposition members whose names have been referred to the privilege committee are - Jebi Mather Hisham, L Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, G. C. Chandrashekhar, Binoy Viswam, Sandosh Kumar P, Mohamed Abdulla, John Brittas, and A A Rahim.
The Lok Sabha suspended 33 opposition members, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T R Baalu, and Sougata Ray, from the House for displaying placards and raising slogans over the Parliament’s security breach issue.
While 30 members, including 10 from the DMK, nine from the Trinamool Congress, eight from the Congress, and one each from IUML, JD(U), and RSP were suspended for the remainder of the Winter session, three other Congress members were suspended pending a report of the Privileges Committee.
Last week, 13 opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha, and one was suspended from the Rajya Sabha for disrupting the proceedings. The total number of suspended opposition members now stands at 47. The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day soon after the suspension of 33 members was announced.
Among those suspended on Monday were Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Amar Singh, Rajamohan Unnithan, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, K Muraleedharan, Anto Antony (all from Congress), Kalyan Banerjee, Aparupa Poddar, Prasun Banerjee, Sougata Ray, Satabdi Ray, Protima Mondal, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Asit Kumar Mal, Sunil Kumar Mondal (all from TMC), T R Baalu, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, T Sumathy, K Navas Kani, Kalanidhi Veerasamy, C N Annadurai, S S Palanimanickam, G Selvam, S Ramalingam (all from DMK), ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML), N K Premachandran (RSP), and Kaushalendra Kumar (JD-U).
Three Congress members -- K Jayakumar, Vijay Vasanth, and Abdul Khaleque -- who had climbed on the speaker’s podium and raised slogans were suspended from the Lok Sabha pending a report of the Privileges.
