The suspension sabre continued to slash through the Opposition benches on Tuesday as 49 more Lok Sabha MPs were suspended, taking the tally of ousted MPs in the current winter session to a never-before 141.
These included a senior like Farooq Abdullah and key Opposition leaders like Sudip Bandopadhyay of the Trinamul Congress, Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tiwari of the Congress and the NCP’s Supriya Sule. All were summarily held guilty of the same offence as their already banished colleagues — “violating Parliament’s ‘maryada’ (dignity) with their unruly protests” demanding a statement from home minister Amit Shah on last Wednesday’s security breach.
Shah, who had coldly ignored the Opposition’s vociferous demand, absenting himself from Parliament since the smoke bomb protest, was seen in the Lok Sabha during the post-lunch session when the House looked almost “Opposition-mukt”, their benches bereft because of the mass suspensions.
Shah had turned up to push three contentious criminal law bills in the Lok Sabha that were taken up after the suspensions. The bills will likely be put to a vote on Wednesday and will go through with the barest debate.
The Opposition INDIA bloc parties command a strength of over 130 MPs in the Lok Sabha; with 95 of them thrown out since last Thursday, they were rendered even more paltry before the Treasury’s brute majority. Barring the Congress’s Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, who were busy with INDIA bloc meetings on Tuesday afternoon, there is barely any Opposition leader of significance left in the Lok Sabha.
“Today at least 50 more INDIA MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha alone! A complete purge is being executed so that draconian Bills are passed without any meaningful debate, and so that the BJP MP who facilitated entry of the two intruders into the Lok Sabha on December 13th goes scot-free. The new Parliament reflects Namocracy in all its tyranny,” Congress’s media in-charge and suspended Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
The “purge” of Opposition members started last Thursday when 14 MPs (13 Lok Sabha and 1 Rajya Sabha) were suspended. It was followed up with a “bloodbath Monday” when 78 MPs (33 Lok Sabha and 45 Rajya Sabha) were suspended in one fell swoop. BJP leaders did not rule out the possibility of more suspensions before the winter session closes on Friday.
Unfazed by Thursday’s mass axing, Opposition leaders stepped into the Well of the House with placards as the Lok Sabha assembled for the day, daring the government to get whatever was left of them.
All the prominent Opposition faces, barring some like Sonia and Rahul, were seen in the Well as slogans slamming the government’s “tanashahi” and “murder of democracy” were raised.
“The entire country is watching you. This kind of conduct of waving placards, coming near the Chair and climbing up, is not acceptable…. This is the last warning from me…,” Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla hectored them.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi lashed out at the Opposition for waving placards with “morphed” pictures of Prime Minister Modi. “They (Opposition) have got morphed pictures of the PM. This is not acceptable. They have been defeated and rejected by the people in the state polls and so they are venting their frustration here,” Joshi said, urging the Speaker “to take action against them”.
After two adjournments, the names of the MPs were read out during the post-lunch session stressing that they had “compelled” the Chair to act against them. Minister Joshi moved a resolution to suspend the 49 MPs for the remainder of the session; it was swiftly passed by a voice vote. The MPs were blamed for “utter disregard to the House and the authority of the Chair”. NC’s Farooq Abdullah was seen greeting the Chair with folded hands as his name was read out while others shouted: “Shame, shame…”
BSP MP Danish Ali, who was also suspended, shouted how a BJP MP (Ramesh Bidhuri) who had hurled communal abuses at him was inside the House while he was being thrown out for asking questions of the government. Others also raised the issue of no action against BJP MP Prathap Simmha, who had signed passes for the Lok Sabha intruders.
More suspensions of about two dozen Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha was also expected but that didn’t come to be. The Opposition, however, defiantly staged protests pressing the demand for a statement from the home minister on the breach of security in Parliament.
About a dozen MPs entered into the Well of the Upper House. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was seen with a placard. Dola Sen from the Trinamul Congress kept shouting slogans like “Home minister sadan me aao”.
Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected four notices by Opposition leaders for a discussion on breach of security. The House was adjourned five times as disruptions continued. Amid the din, the House returned the Appropriation Bills and passed a bill on rehabilitation of slums in Delhi.
Dhankhar said it was the responsibility of members to keep the House in order. “We are setting a very dangerous precedent,” he said.
