Four Congress MPs were on Monday suspended from the rest of the Monsoon session for disrupting the proceedings of the House and not allowing it to function during the last week.
The Congress hit back at the Speaker and termed his action as “a blot on democracy”. The party accused the Government of trying to “intimidate” it for raising people’s issues and said it would not be cowed down.
The suspended MPs are: Manickam Tagore, TN Prathapan, Jothimani and Ramya Haridas.
Before naming the four MPs, Speaker Om Birla told the protesting members — from the Congress, the TMC and the DMK — that those who continue to shout slogans and display placards will have to do it outside the House after 3 pm. When the disruption continued, Birla named the four Congress MPs.
After the Chair named the Congress MPs for disrupting the House, Parliamentary Affair Minister Pralhad Joshi then moved a resolution to suspend them for the rest of the session. Joshi said that these MPs have shown “utter disregard” for the authority of the Chair and a “serious note of their misconduct” have been taken by the House.
Flanked by the suspended MPs outside the House, Congress’ deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said, “The Government is trying to intimidate us by suspending our MPs. What was their fault? They were trying to raise the issues which matter to people.”
Asserting that the Congress will not be cowed down like this, he said, “The MPs were holding placards raising the issues of rising prices of gas cylinder, imposition of the GST on items such as flour and buttermilk. We moved an adjournment motion demanding a discussion on these issues, but no discussion was held.”
The TMC MPs, who were part of the protesting opposition parties till 2 pm, did not join the protests after the House assembled at 3 pm. They were seen sitting in their seats. As the other Opposition members continued to protest, a visibly peeved Birla told them that the Government was ready to discuss issues raised by them and stressed that people want the House to function.
Birla then adjourned the House till 3 pm.
However, as the House proceedings resumed, waving of placards and sloganeering continued, drowning the voices of members participating in the Zero Hour. Rajendra Agarwal, who was chairing the proceedings, implored the Opposition members to take note of the warning given by the Speaker.
He said that the members who had been suspended had shown “stubborn behaviour”, “deliberately and continuously disrupted proceedings” and ignored House rules and directions of the Speaker.
The House then passed the resolution by a voice vote and Agarwal announced their suspension. He then asked the members named in the resolution to immediately leave the House. The proceedings were subsequently adjourned for the day.
“Today, when a tribal woman has taken oath as President, a Dalit woman has been suspended from Lok Sabha,” Gogoi said.
He said that the BJP only wants Parliament to cheer its leaders and its victory. “We were trying to show placards in the House and place them in the camera angles. They say placards are not allowed in Parliament... what is allowed is only cheering for Modi ji,” he said.
Asked about the suspension at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, party spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said there is a tradition in Parliament that suspension is done only in exceptional and rarest of the rare circumstances when the member is unruly and there is no other option but suspension of that member.
“When Sukh Ram ji was our Minister, the BJP had not allowed Parliament to function for 17 days alleging corruption against him. Sukh Ram ji had resigned and we had also allowed debate. There was no suspension,” Gohil said.
“It is a tradition of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha that the member comes to the well of the House, it gets adjourned, there is a dialogue, a middle path is found and work goes on. Suspension is not the way and in the past, suspension has not happened in this manner,” he said.
He said that when the BJP was in Opposition it had done the same thing repeatedly, and argued that stalling the House is a tactic of the Opposition which is in public interest and running of the House is the job of the party in power.
“Suspension instead of dialogue is a blot on democracy,” he said