Six Congress MPs were suspended from the lok Sabha for five days by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday on the ground of their "highly unbecoming" conduct that involved tearing off papers and scattering them close to the Chair while aggressively protesting in the Well of the House over the issue of lynchings by cow vigilantes.
The vociferous protests of the Congress after their demand for an adjournment motion on the "barbaric and shameful" incidents of lynching was disallowed by Mahajan, witnessed party MPs picking up some official papers and tearing them during Zero Hour . As the Treasury Benches protested and bedlam prevailed, the Speaker adjourned the House and when it resumed proceedings at 2.00 pm she announced her decision to suspend the six Congress MPs for five days for" highly unbecoming" conduct that "undermined the Chair's dignity". Mahajan said she was constrained to name Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhir Rajan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and MK Raghavan for their improper behaviour.
In her order, she said all these members had torn official papers and thrown it towards the Chair, which prompted members of the treasury benches to shout "shame, shame".
Some of these members had picked up papers from the lok Sabha secretariat staffers' table and had torn and thrown them, Mahajan said.
The Congress members ' slogan-shouting throughout the question hour had halted for sometime when their leader in the House Mallikarjun Kharge was allowed to raise the issue of lynching with government also briefly putting across its view. But soon after, "dissatisfied" Congress MPs again trooped into the well of the house and resumed shouting slogans against the Modi government.
The Speaker conducted the zero hour in the running pandemonium as BJP members Meenakshi lekhi and Nishikant Dubey raised the issue of Bofors and sought government agencies should be re-investigating the scandal as they alleged probe was derailed by the Congress government.
At this point, Congress members picked up papers, tore and threw them around close to the Chair. Congress President Sonia Gandhi was present in the house.
Regretting the conduct of the Congress members, the Speaker said this had happened despite her agreeing to a discussion on the issue of alleged atrocities against Dalits and Muslims.
Kharge and a few other members had raised the issue of atrocities and she had allowed them to speak during zero hour with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also agreeing to a discussion on the issue, the Speaker said. But despite that many members stormed the Well and indulged in improper conduct, she said while pronouncing the order.As she pronounced their suspension, many Congress members again trooped into the Well, with K C Venugopal being heard telling her that she should suspend all Congress members.
When the House reassembled at 2.30 PM, Congress members were joined by the left in protesting against the suspension, prompting Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai to adjourn the House for the day.
later, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar attacked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for "letting" party members have their way and termed it a "black day" for Indian democracy.
Kumar alleged Sonia remained in her seat while her party's members created a ruckus in the Well of the House and did not try to stop them.