Opposition gears up for stir, two more MPs suspended
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday suspended two more Opposition MPs till the end of the Winter session, taking the number of parliamentarians penalised in both Houses to 143 in a week.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday suspended two more Opposition MPs till the end of the Winter session, taking the number of parliamentarians penalised in both Houses to 143 in a week, attracting further criticism from the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) that has called for a nationwide protest on Friday.
CPI(M) lawmaker AM Ariff and Kerala Congress (M)’s Thomas Chazhikadan were suspended for displaying placards and entering the well of the Lok Sabha, after a resolution moved by Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi was adopted by the House.
The development came after a record 141 MPs from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were ordered out till at least the end of the Winter session since December 14. Of these, 97 are from Lok Sabha and 46 from Rajya Sabha.
The suspensions were a result of the Opposition members’ refusal to budge on their demand for a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach last week. The cases of three Lok Sabha MPs and 11 Rajya Sabha MPs have been referred to the privileges committee.
Joshi moved the resolution in the House, taking “serious note of the grave misconduct of Shri C. Thomas and Shri A. M. Arif MPs in utter disregard to the House and the authority of the Chair through display of placards and entering the well of the House.”
The latest action against the Opposition MPs intensified their confrontation with the Centre. “It is clear that they want an Opposition-free Lok Sabha and they will do something similar in Rajya Sabha. At this point, unfortunately, we have to start writing obituaries for Parliamentary democracy in India,” Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, who was suspended earlier, said.
“The suspension of an unprecedented number of opposition leaders in the span of just a few days is a blatant disregard for democracy,” the CPI(M) posted on X.
Parliamentarians of the INDIA bloc decided to hold a nationwide protest, including one at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, on Friday. According to Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi will also take part in the protest.
“Most of the INDIA bloc leaders are expected to participate,” Delhi Congress spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said. On Tuesday, after a meeting of the coalition, Kharge announced that a nationwide protest will be held on Friday. The BJP, however, slammed the Opposition for disrupting Parliament. “They have been suspended due to their inappropriate behaviour. People will not participate in the rally because they have seen their hypocrisy,” Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said.