While 30 of them were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session, three were suspended pending the report of the Privileges Committee.
The new Parliament building. (Creative Commons)
The Lok Sabha suspended 33 Opposition members from the House on Monday, 18 December, for disrupting proceedings over the security breach in the Lok Sabha and demanding the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha suspended 45 Opposition MPs for the remainder of the session for disrupting the proceedings.
The suspended members included Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK MPs TR Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran, and Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
While 30 Lok Sabha MPs were suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session, three were suspended pending a report of the Privileges Committee.
The three Congress MPs — K Jayakumar (Thiruvallur) and Vijay Vasanth (Kanniyakumari) from Tamil Nadu and Abdul Khaleque from Barpeta in Assam — had climbed onto the Lok Sabha Speaker’s podium to raise slogans.
After being named by the Chair, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion regarding the suspension and it was adopted by a voice vote.
The Speaker also adjourned the house for the day, following two earlier adjournments in the day, over protests by the Opposition members.
The suspended Lok Sabha MPs included 11 from the Congress, nine from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) nine from the DMK, two from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and one each from JD(U) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).
They are:
As many as 45 Opposition members in Rajya Sabha were suspended on Monday from the House for unruly behaviour and disregarding the directions of the Chair after they raised slogans over the Parliament security breach issue and disrupted proceedings.
While 34 of the Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended for the remainder of the Winter session, 11 have been directed to stay away from the House pending an inquiry report on their conduct by the Committee of Privileges.
The members were suspended after the House adopted a motion moved by Leader of the House Piyush Goyal for the suspension of 34 MPs for the remainder of the session and another one for referring cases of conduct of 11 other Opposition MPs to the privileges committee.
The Committee has been asked to submit its report within three months and the 11 MPs will not be able to attend the proceedings of the House till then.
Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar first named the suspended members and then put the motion to vote, which was adopted by voice vote.
The Opposition members were creating a din in the House while demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach in Lok Sabha and were raising slogans and disrupting proceedings of the House that saw repeated adjournments since morning.
The Winter session is slated to conclude on 22 December.
Among the 34 suspended for the remainder of the session, 12 MPs are from the Congress.
The suspended Rajya Sabha MPs are:
The 11 Opposition members whose names have been referred to the privilege committee are — Jebi Mather Hisham, L Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, GC Chandrashekhar, Binoy Viswam, Santosh Kumar P, Mohamed Abdulla, John Brittas and AA Rahim.
Meanwhile, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government for becoming an autocratic government by suspending 47 Opposition MPs in Lok Sabha.
“First, intruders attacked Parliament. Then Modi Govt attacking Parliament & Democracy All Democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Govt by suspending 47 MPs,” he wrote on X.
“We have two simple and genuine demands – 1. The Union Home Minister should make a statement in both Houses of Parliament on the inexcusable breach in the Parliament security. 2. A detailed discussion should be held on the same.”
“PM can give an interview to a newspaper; Home Minister can give interviews to TV channels. But, they have ZERO accountability left to the Parliament – which represents the PEOPLE OF INDIA!”
“With an Opposition-Less Parliament, the Modi Govt can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate,” he added.
First, intruders attacked Parliament.
Then Modi Govt attacking Parliament & DemocracyAll Democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Govt by suspending 47 MPs.
We have two simple and genuine demands –
1. The Union Home Minister should make a…
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) December 18, 2023
The two Houses of Parliament on 14 December suspended 14 Opposition MPs for the remainder of the Winter Session. Of the 14, 13 were suspended from the Lok Sabha and one was from the Rajya Sabha.
The 14 MPs — nine from the Congress, two each from the DMK and the CPI(M), and one each from the CPI and the TMC — were among those vociferously demanding the resignation of Shah in the Houses over the breach in security at the Parliament building on Wednesday.
Of the nine Congress Lok Sabha MPs suspended then, six were from Kerala — N Prathapan (Thrissur), Hibi Eden (Ernakulam), Ramya Haridas (Alathur), Dean Kuriakose (Idukki), Benny Behanan (Chalakudy), and VK Sreekandan (Palakkad) — two from Tamil Nadu — Jothimani Sennimalai (Karur), and Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar) — and Mohammed Jawed from Kishanganj, Bihar.
Other Lok Sabha members suspended were Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi) from DMK, CPI(M) members PR Natarajan (Coimbatore), and S Venkatesan (Madurai), and CPI member K Subbarayan (Tiruppur) — all of them from Tamil Nadu.
The lone Rajya Sabha member suspended was Derek O’Brien of the TMC.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved the resolution in the Lok Sabha to initially suspend five parliamentarians, with nine more joining the list when the House reconvened.
In the Rajya Sabha, a similar resolution was moved against TMC MP Derek O’Brien.
Meanwhile, DMK MP Senthilkumar S posted on X that one MP mentioned in the list SR Parthiban was absent during the proceedings.
Meanwhile, Joshi said on 14 December evening: “A total of 13 MPs have been suspended from the Lok Sabha. An MP who was not present at the well was also suspended… We requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to drop that name and the Speaker accepted this.”
The Speaker, however, said on 16 December said that some members linked the decision of the House to suspend some members from the service of the House to the incident which occurred on 13 December, which was unwarranted.
“There is no association between the suspension of Hon’ble Members and the incident which took place on 13 December 2023. The suspension of Hon’ble Members is purely to uphold the sanctity of the House. At the time of inauguration of the new building of our Parliament, we had resolved that we will refrain from bringing placards inside the House; we will not create ruckus in the well of the House,” the letter said.
Saying that the MPs were suspended since they carried placards and violated the rules of the House, he urged the members to maintain the “dignity and decorum of the House”.
On 13 December, two people jumped into the well of the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery, shouted slogans, and released yellow smoke from canisters that triggered panic and chaos in the House.
Soon after the security breach, Birla had ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident.
The Ministry of Home Affairs also ordered a probe into the Parliament security breach incident following a request from the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The inquiry committee, headed by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General Anish Dayal Singh, along with members from other security agencies and experts, will ascertain the reason for the lapse in the security of Parliament and recommend action, an MHA spokesperson said.
Two persons — Sagar Sharma and Karnataka man Manoranjan D — jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber and two other accused — Amol Shinde and Neelam Devi — sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting “Tanashahi nahi chalegi” (Dictatorship would not be allowed) outside the Parliament premises.
A resident of Kolkata, Lalit Jha, a teacher by profession, has been named the main conspirator of the security breach, police said.
(With PTI inputs)
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