Congress on Thursday termed the suspension of opposition MPs as a “murder of democracy” and claimed that the BJP government has turned Parliament into a “rubber stamp”.
As many as 15 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament for the remainder of the Winter session for disrupting proceedings over the Lok Sabha security breach issue. TMC’s Derek O’Brien was suspended from the Rajya Sabha, while 13 opposition MPs, including nine from the Congress and DMK’s Kanimozhi, were suspended from the Lok Sabha.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge criticized the BJP, stating, “having endangered national security and the safety of the temple of our Democracy — the Parliament — the BJP is now shooting the messenger”.
Congress general secretary, K C Venugopal, also criticized the move, calling it “a horrible, undemocratic move to suspend opposition MPs for demanding an answer from the Government on the shocking security breach in Parliament.” Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the government of trying to distract from the main issue of security breach and said that “Democracy is being ruthlessly sacrificed.”
Later, the Congress criticized the suspension of opposition MPs while BJP MP Pratap Simha, on whose recommendation two intruders got public gallery passes, was “commended”.
Amid opposition protests demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the security breach incident, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved two resolutions separately for the suspension of the MPs for disrupting the Lok Sabha proceedings.
While T N Prathapan, Hibi Eden, Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and Dean Kuriakose (all from the Congress) were suspended when the first resolution was adopted, VK Sreekandan (Congress), Benny Behanan (Congress), Mohammad Jawed (Congress), PR Natarajan (CPI-M), Kanimozhi (DMK), K Subbarayan (CPI), SR Parthiban (DMK), S Venkatesan (CPI-M), and Manickam Tagore (Congress) were suspended through the second resolution.
The name of DMK member SR Parthiban was later removed from the list of suspended MPs after it was revealed that he was not present in Delhi but in Chennai. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said, “There is comedy in this suspension, S R Parthiban has been named in the list, he wasn’t even in the LS today. I guess they can’t make out one Tamilian from another.”