In an unprecedented development, 78 MPs, including both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, were suspended today for staging protests in demand of a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach in Parliament last week. Fourteen MPs had been suspended last week, also for demanding a statement on the security breach. So, this takes the total number of MPs suspended in this session to 92.
In Lok Sabha, 30 MPs have been suspended for the remainder of the session and three have been suspended till the privileges committee submits a report on their conduct. As for Rajya Sabha, 35 members have been suspended for the rest of session and 11 till a report by privileges panel. Earlier, Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien had been suspended after he demanded a discussion on the breach.
The suspended MPs from Lok Sabha include Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress’s leader in Lok Sabha, and Gaurav Gogoi, deputy leader of the party in the House. Trinamool MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Saugata Ray and Satabdi Roy, and DMK members A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran are also on the list.
In Rajya Sabha, Congress’s Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala, DMK’s Kanimozhi and RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha are among those suspended.
Amid the chaos in Rajya Sabha today, Vice-President and Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar was heard saying, “Many members are deliberately ignoring the bench. House is not functioning due to disruption.”
In his first remarks on the security
breach, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Dainik Jagran newspaper in an
interview that the incident was “very serious”. He said there is “no need to
debate” this and that a “detailed investigation” should be carried out.
On the Opposition’s demand for the Home
Minister’s statement, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has maintained that security
inside the House is under the secretariat’s purview and that it will not let
the Centre intervene.
“The government cannot intervene in (responsibilities
of) Lok Sabha secretariat. We will not allow that either,” he said last week.
Shocking scenes played out in the Lok
Sabha chamber, when two intruders jumped from desk to desk and deployed
coloured smoke from canisters on December 13.
Their co-accused staged a similar
protest outside Parliament. They have told investigators that their objective
was to draw attention to Manipur violence, unemployment and farmers’ problems.
A total of six people have been arrested
in connection with a case so far. Delhi Police have invoked the stringent
anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, against the trespassers.
NE Watch Desk
