New Delhi, Apr 24: In an unprecedented action, Congress today got suspended eight of its members in Lok Sabha for causing disruptions over Telangana issue in the House.
This is the first time that members of the ruling party have been suspended in a group in Parliament whereas at the height of controversy over Bofors over 30 members from the Opposition were suspended in the late 1980s for disruption.
On a motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister and party's Chief Whip P K Bansal, the House suspended Ponnam Prabhakar, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, M Jagannath, K R G Reddy, G Viveknanda, Balram Naik, Sukender Reddy Gutha and S Rajaiah, all elected on Congress ticket from the Telangana region.
The motion was carried by a voice vote after Francisco Sardinha, who was in the Chair, warned them of action if they failed to go to their seats when they protested in the Well campaigning for a separate Telangana.
The action came soon after a meeting of the Congress top brass including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi deliberated on the matter.
Moments after the House reassembled after two adjournments, the members stormed the Well holding posters supporting a separate state and chanting slogans like ‘We Want Telangana'.
They staged a sit-in in the Well forcing half-an-hour adjournment of the House. As they continued to sit in even after the House reassembled, Sardinha adjourned the House for the day at 2.30 pm.
Observers felt that the action against ruling party members could be a signal to the Opposition to restrain its members too.
BJP took a dig at the ruling party by seeking to know whether it wielded control over its Parliamentary party while CPI(M) blamed Congress for the impasse over the statehood issue.
“The (Congress) members are not in control even in the presence of the Congress President. Congress should reply whether it has hold over its Parliamentary party...a lot of time of the House has been wasted by members of the ruling party,” BJP spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Senior CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia said, “In 1988, 50-55 Opposition members were suspended following protests over Bofors issue. They included even those who were not present in the House.
“But this is the first time that ruling party members are being suspended by the ruling party itself. I have never seen this happening during my long tenure. It is unprecedented,” he said.
Holding Congress responsible for the “distress” in the state over the Telangana issue, Acharia and his colleague Sitaram Yechury said the onus lay with that party as it was ruling both at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh.
Congress in Andhra Pradesh has been badly divided on regional lines with members from Telangana region in the forefront of the demand for a separate state.
While TRS, agitating for the cause of a separate Telangana, as also TDP, have some members from Telangana, they were not seen in the House today.
Earlier in the day, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee held parleys with Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and some other opposition leaders including Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Sharad Yadav (JD-U) and Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI).
While the action against the eight was taken on the first day of second phase of the Budget session today, they had been constantly disrupting the proceedings of the lower house for several days in the first phase of the session which had ended on March 30.
Undeterred by the action, the suspended members staged a dharna in the House, forcing its adjournment for the day as some opposition leaders expressed themselves against use of marshals for evicting them.
