Number of MPs suspended under NDA regime 3 times more than during UPA

The latest to join the list were the 20 Rajya Sabha MPs from the Opposition, suspended on 26 and 27 July, and the four Lok Sabha members suspended on 25 July.

However, the suspension of the Lok Sabha MPs — Manickam Tagore and Jothimani Sennimalai from Tamil Nadu, and TN Prathapan and Ramya Haridas from Kerala — was revoked on 1 August by Speaker Om Birla, after seeking assurance from the Opposition that they would not bring placards to the House.

जनता की आवाज़ दबाने की सजा दे रही है सरकार।
मगर आवाज़ दबेगी नहीं, चाहे जितने कर लो वार।। pic.twitter.com/bV2QjkNVGL

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 25, 2022

Spike in suspension cases

According to parliamentary experts and Opposition MPs, there has been a sharp spike in suspensions since 2014.

The former secretary general of the Lok Sabha, PD Thankappan Achary, told South First, “In Parliament, bills are passed at the last moment by the ruling party. It is becoming a practice. It is a great loss to the country, Parliament, and the Opposition who cannot present their views and discuss the bills.”

Achary added that Parliament’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business deny automatic suspension even if the proceedings are disrupted.

However, “it is the Speaker’s discretion whom he or she wants to suspend,” he said.

“The ruling party is responsible for maintaining calm in the house and ensuring a positive relationship with the Opposition so that the House functions smoothly. It has to listen to the reasonable demands of the Opposition. It cannot be treated as an enemy of the ruling party. That is how the House functions,” he said.

He added that the disruptions in the Lok Sabha was nothing new.

Congress Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari told South First that the Narendra Modi government was “strangling democracy” by not allowing the Opposition MPs to protest.

“Essentially, the government wants to emasculate Parliament and stifle dissent. In all of this, democracy is the only thing under threat and it is suffering greatly,” he said.

The former information and broadcasting minister asked, “Weren’t people protesting between 2004 and 2014? At times, entire sessions were wiped out by the BJP, but how many of their MPs were suspended?”

He said the UPA did not suspend as many MPs primarily because it respected the democratic ethos of Parliament.

Asked about the Speaker, he said, “The role of the presiding officer is under scrutiny as he is supposed to be impartial. But it does not seem to be the case because only the Opposition MPs are being suspended.”

BJP’s reaction

BJP National spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala told South First, “Of course, the Opposition must raise its voice in Parliament, but the mandate can’t be held hostage.”

He added: “Unfortunately, some people in the Opposition think that Parliament is not a platform for samvaad (discussion) but vivaad (disruption), not for conversation and consensus, but confrontation. This is because they believe more in parivaarvaad (nepotism) and less in loktantra (democracy).”

Taking a swipe at the Opposition, Poonawala said: “What is more important for them is destruction, obstruction, and how to score a brownie point by appearing on television. Not the vision and mission of the country. So, they like obstructing sessions, creating a ruckus, and holding proceedings hostage instead of allowing Parliament to be used as a platform for public interest.”

Referring to former BJP leader Arun Jaitely’s, “Disruption is a legitimate parliamentary practice” quip, Poonawala alleged, “Between 2004 and 2014, NDA MPs raised their voice in Parliament. However, they never beat up martials, never threw chairs and papers, never resorted to hooliganism or ran to the well and held placards illegally in the name of directing public attention toward issues of importance. We saw all this behaviour in the August 2021 Monsoon session of Parliament.”

He added: “There was massive corruption under the UPA, but the ruling alliance was not ready for discussion on it. Manmohan Singh used to say that the Opposition has the responsibility of running the House. So, why don’t the Congress leaders follow Manmohan Singh’s ideology now? How come he is not relevant to them anymore?”

Rise in Suspension cases since 2014

The most large-scale suspension of MPs in the history of the Lok Sabha came in March 1989, when 63 MPs were suspended for disrupting the House over the Thakkar Commission Report on the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

The suspension, however, was revoked the next day.

While there have been suspensions in the Lok Sabha every year since 2014, when the NDA came to power, the number of suspensions in the Rajya Sabha has risen since 2019.