Parliament Winter Session: Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was suspended from Lok Sabha on Monday (December 18) along with some other Opposition MPs or remainder of Winter Session, taking the total number of suspended lawmakers today to 33. 11 Congress members, 9 members each from Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), 2 MPs from Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and 1 each from Janata Dal United (JDU) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) have been suspended today. So far, 92 Opposition MPs have been suspended from both Houses of the Parliament. This comes after the Opposition MPs created ruckus over the Parliament security breach incident that took place on December 13.
Notably, 45 MPs were suspended in Rajya Sabha, soon after it happened in Lok Sabha, taking the total number of suspensions to 92 in both Houses. 33 Lok Sabha MPs were suspended from the Lower House besides the 13 who were suspended earlier. With the suspension of 45 MPs from Rajya Sabha and one, who was suspended earlier, the total number of such MPs rose to 92 today.
The Opposition has been demanding for a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the matter. The three -- K Jayakumar, Vijay Vasanth and Abdul Khaliq -- had climbed on the Speaker's podium to raise slogans. When the House reassembled at 3 pm after adjournments earlier, BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the Chair, said that the members had been violating rules. "You have been repeatedly requested not to bring placards to the House," he said. He then named the members and Joshi moved a motion to suspend them from the remaining part of the winter session, which ends on December 22. The motion was later adopted.Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day soon after.
List of 33 Opposition MPs suspended from Lok Sabha today:
- Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress)
- Gaurav Gogoi (Congress)
- Dr K Jayakumar (Congress)
- Vijay Vasanth (Congress)
- Anto Antony (Congress)
- Kodikunnil Suresh (Congress)
- Su Thirunavukkarasar (Congress)
- Kuttan Pillai Rajmohan Unnithan (Congress)
- Amar Singh (Congress)
- K Muraleedharan (Congress)
- Abdul Khaliq (Congress)
- Saugata Roy (Trinammol Congress)
- Aparupa Poddar (Trinammol Congress)
- Prasun Banerjee (Trinammol Congress)
- Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress)
- Asit Kumar Mal (Trinamool Congress)
- Satabdi Roy (Trinamool Congress)
- Sunil Kumar Mondal (Trinamool Congress)
- Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Trinamool Congress)
- Pratima Mondal (Trinamool Congress)
- TR Baalu (DMK)
- A Raja (DMK)
- Dayanidhi Maran (DMK)
- CN Annadurai (DMK)
- Thamizhachi Thangapandian Sumathy (DMK)
- G Selvam (DMK)
- Kalanidhi Veeraswamy (DMK)
- SS Palanimanickam (DMK)
- S Ramalingam (DMK)
- Kaushalendra Kumar (JDU)
- NK Premachandran (RSP)
- ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML)
- K Navaskani (IUML)
Adhir Ranjan reacts
Congress MP Adhir Ranjan reacted to his suspension and said that the government of the day has reached the "heights of tyranny".
"All leaders, including me, have been suspended. We have been demanding for days to reinstate our MPs who were suspended earlier and that the Home Minister come to the House and give a statement. He gives statements to the TV every day and he can speak a little in the Parliament too regarding what is being done by the Government for the security of the Parliament...Today's Government has reached the heights of tyranny...We wanted discussion..." he said.
Congress MP Abdul Khaliq slammed the government for the move and called it a "murder of democracy".
"We had only sought an answer from the government regarding the security breach incident. We had only asked when the Home Minister would come to the House and give a statement on this and we've been suspended for asking these questions. No action has been taken against BJP MPs Pratap Simha and Ramesh Bidhuri. This is murder of democracy. We will continue to raise our voice..." he said.
Gaurav Gogoi hits out at the government
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi came down heavily on the government and alleged that the BJP has not come to power with a motive to run the Parliament. He made a reference to the bulldozer and said that it is being run in the Parliament.
"The entire country can see the bulldozers that are being run in the Parliament. This is nothing but a way to suppress the opposition leaders. They are running a bulldozer over the opposition to hide the failures of Union Home Minister Amit Shah...They have not come to power with a motive to run the Parliament..." he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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