78 MPs Suspended From Parliament Amid Opposition Ruckus

New Delhi: In an unprecedented crackdown, 78 Opposition MPs were  suspended from both Houses of Parliament for “misconduct” on Monday as a ruckus raged over the recent breach in Parliament’s security. The Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mr Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, as well as Gaurav Gogoi, T.R. Baalu, Sougata Ray, Jairam Ramesh, K.C. Venugopal,  Randeep Singh Surjewala and Ram Gopal Yadav were among those suspended.

The suspension came as both Houses witnessed repeated adjournments amid calls from the Opposition MPs for a statement from home minister Amit Shah over the security breach. Earlier, 14 MPs were suspended. This takes the total number of MPs suspended in the Winter Session to 92.

On Monday, the government moved a motion to suspend 33 Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha and  45 in the Rajya Sabha for “unruly behaviour” and disregarding the directions of the Chair. The Opposition MPs rushed to the Well of both the Houses with placards and raised slogans demanding a statement from Shah. This led to repeated adjournments of both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

While the Opposition accused the government of trying to “gag the voice of dissent”, the BJP accused the Congress and its allies of “insulting” the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman and “embarrassing” the country with their conduct. Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal said that the Opposition members “wilfully disrupted” the parliamentary proceedings despite the decision taken earlier that placards would not be allowed in both Houses. For the Opposition, the government was trying to “bulldoze the Opposition in a desperate bid to hide its failures”.

Targeting the home minister, Congress’ Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury argued that while Shah was giving statements to TV channels, “he does not seem to have time to do the same on the floor of the House”. For the Congress leader, “it’s the height of tyranny” that the nation was witnessing. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hit out, saying “democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi government”. Suspended Congress MP Jairam Ramesh described the suspensions as a “bloodbath”. The home minister, speaking to a TV channel, accused the Opposition of “politicizing” a “serious issue”.

Maintaining that Parliament security “is the responsibility of the Speaker”, the home minister told the TV channel that a “high-level probe has been ordered” and that the “report will be submitted to the Speaker at the earliest”.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in the national capital, described the crackdown as a “mockery of democracy”. DMK MP T.R. Baalu pointed out that “nothing like this has happened in the history of India’s Parliament”.

In the Lok Sabha, 30 members, including 10 from the DMK, nine from the Trinamul Congress, eight from the Congress and one each from the IUML, JD(U) and RSP, were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session. Also, 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 till the Privileges Committee submits a report on their “unparliamentary behaviour”.

In the morning, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had objected to the placards being brought into the House. The Speaker said that “it lowers the dignity of the House”. Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi  appealed to the Opposition members not to wave the placards. Joshi reminded them that it was agreed at the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee that no one would bring placards into the House.

As the Lok Sabha met at 3 pm after adjournments, BJP member Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the Chair, named the 33 Opposition members. The parliamentary affairs minister read out a motion suspending 30 members from the House for the remaining part of the session. Joshi also moved a separate motion referring the conduct of Jayakumar, Vasanth and Khaleque to the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha, and suspending them pending submission of the report by the panel.

In the Rajya Sabha, while 34 MPs were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session, 11 others were directed to stay away from the House pending an inquiry report on their conduct by the Privileges Committee. The committee has been asked to submit its report within three months. These 11 Opposition MPs will not be allowed to attend the proceedings till the committee submits its report. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar first named the suspended members and then put the motion to vote, which was adopted by a voice vote.

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, K.C. Venugopal, Rajani Ashokrao Patil, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi, Randeep Singh Surjewala (all Congress); while seven members are from the 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 N.V.N. 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 Privileges 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.

Among those suspended on Monday in the Lok Sabha 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 DMK); E.T. Mohammed Basheer (IUML), N.K. Premachandran (RSP) and Kaushalendra Kumar (JD-U).