49 Opposition MPs including Farooq Abdullah, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari suspended from Lok Sabha

Image Source : PTI Opposition protest in Parliament premises

Several Opposition MPs including Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Manish Tewari (Congress), Dimple Yadav (SP) and Supriya Sule (NCP) have been suspended from Lok Sabha for the rest of Winter Session for displaying placards and raising slogans, demanding a reply from the home minister over the December 13 Parliament security breach matter. In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack last Wednesday, two men -- Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D -- jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour, released coloured smoke and shouted slogans, before being overpowered by the MPs. Two others, including a woman, were detained outside the Parliament complex for staging a protest.

49 Lok Sabha MPs including Karti Chidambaram (Congress), Ravneet Singh Bittu (Congress), Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Trinamool Congress), Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh (JDU) and Dinesh Chandra Yadav (JDU) have also been suspended. 18 Lok Sabha MPs from Congress, 10 from JDU, 6 from DMK, 4 from Trinamool Congress, 3 from NCP, 2 from JKNC and SP and 1 from IUML, AAP and VCK were suspended today. Danish Ali, suspended by the BSP for 'anti-party activities', was also on the list.

On Monday, Lok Sabha suspended 33 opposition members, including the leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK's TR Baalu and Sougata Ray of the Trinamool Congress, from the House for displaying placards and raising slogans over the Parliament security breach issue. A total of 141 MPs have been suspended till now over the issue.

'Opposition-mukt Lok Sabha'

Reacting to the suspension, Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha MP Dimple Yadav said, "This is ultimately the failure of the government." Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "It is clear that they want an Opposition-mukt 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...Today, in solidarity with my colleagues, I too joined the protest and everybody who was present has been suspended for the rest of the session which means they want to pass their Bills without any discussion. I think it is a betrayal of Parliamentary democracy."

27 queries by suspended MPs deleted

As many as 27 questions posed by suspended opposition members of Lok Sabha were deleted from the list of queries to be asked on Tuesday. Similarly, the names of several suspended MPs were removed from groups of members asking the same question to various ministers. The name of Hanuman Beniwal, who resigned from Lok Sabha after being elected as a member of the Rajasthan assembly, was also deleted.