14 “INDIA” MPs Suspended From Parliament Winter Session
NEW DELHI: 14 MPs were suspended from the Parliament on Thursday for the remainder of the winter session for ‘unruly behavior’ during the proceedings.
14 of the suspended MPs are from Lok Sabha and one from Rajya Sabha.
Opposition members have demanded a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach that coincided with the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack.
The opposition MPs wanted to discuss the matter, but the chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the speaker of the Lok Sabha did not agree. As the treasury benches attempted to proceed with other business, opposition MPs insisted that the matter be taken up for discussion – entering the well and raising slogans.
Lok Sabha proceedings were interrupted on Thursday as the Opposition, led by Congress, created a ruckus and protested over the security lapse in which two persons — Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery and released gas from canisters on Wednesday.
In the upper house, TMC MP Derek O’Brien was suspended for the remainder of the session for “disrupting the proceedings of the house in utter disregard to the authority of the chair and having been named by the chair”.
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Manickam Tagore, PR Natarajan, V K Shrikantam, Beni Bahan, K Subrahmanyam, SR Pratiban, S Venkatesan, Mohammed Javed, TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden, S Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and Dean Kuriakose are among the Parliament members who were suspended. The suspension of DMK MP SR Pratiban was later withdrawn. 
The move comes hours after TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien was suspended from the house for “unruly” conduct. A motion for the suspension of the MPs was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi amid vociferous protests and sloganeering by the Opposition members. Joshi said Speaker Om Birla had written to the Home Ministry for a high-level investigation while asking the Opposition to not “politicise” the issue.
“Parliament House security is under purview of the Speaker. Letter has been already written to Home Secretary for high-level inquiry,” Joshi said. “These kinds of unfortunate incidents are happening since beginning shouting slogans, throwing papers and jumping from gallery,” he further added.
Reacting to her suspension from Lok Sabha, DMK MP Kanimozhi said, “There is an MP who has actually given the passes for these (accused of Parliament security breach) people to come in. No action has been taken against that MP. And when we protested and we want the PM and the Home Minister to come and give a statement in the House, they’re not prepared to do that. And when we protested, they are suspending all the opposition MPs. First suspended five, then they suspended nine people. So how is this democracy?”
MP Danish Ali said, “Instead of being accountable to yesterday’s incident the government is talking about the past and when Opposition party MPs are protesting and seeking Union Home minister’s statement, then they are being suspended.” While, JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh said, “The suspensions have been done for the government to hide its failures. They want to scare the Opposition. You can’t govern by creating fear.
On Wednesday, December 13, two men jumped from the public gallery into the Lok Sabha hall and opened smoke canisters, causing House proceedings to be interrupted. The security breach occurred on the anniversary of the 2001 attack on the parliament, then housed in a different building. The two who entered the Lok Sabha had received their entry passes from BJP MP Pratap Simha and shouted slogans but did not attempt to harm anyone in the hall.
In the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, opposition members demanded a short-term discussion on the security breach the day before. Rajya Sabha chair and vice president Jagdeep Dhankar informed the house that he had received 26 notices including from leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge demanding suspension of business to discuss the security breach but said that he did not find merit in the notices.
When the Rajya Sabha resumed proceedings at noon, Dhankar accused TMC MP O’Brien of “gross misconduct” and “gross defiance of the directions of the chair.” He was suspended for the remainder of the session after a motion was moved by the leader of the house and BJP MP Piyush Goyal.
Goyal said that the house “having taken serious note of the misconduct of Shri Derek O’Brien member who has entered the well of the house and has been continuously shouting slogans, gesticulating aggressively at the chair thereby disrupting the proceedings of the house in utter disregard to the authority of the chair and having been named by the chair” be suspended.
Earlier, opposition members of the INDIA bloc also held a meeting before the session started to discuss the security breach. The parties demanded a detailed statement by Shah in both houses of parliament, as well as strict action against the BJP MP Pratap Simha who provided the visitor passes to the intruders.
“The Modi government’s refusal to accept these perfectly legitimate and reasonable demands has led to the adjournment of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha today morning,” Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
(Bureau Report with Media Inputs).
