Opposition Parties Request Speaker to Revoke Congress MPs’ Suspension
NEW DELHI: As a number of parties requested Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to review her decision to suspend 25 Congress lawmakers for five days, there was speculation that she could revoke her order, perhaps as early as Wednesday.
An aggressive Congress boycotted Lok Sabha proceedings on Tuesday and plans to do so for the five days of the suspension. Congress President Sonia Gandhi led a protest and described the suspension as “a murder of democracy.”
“Don’t need to learn democracy from the Congress which imposed Emergency… it’s a very painful decision but the Speaker had no other option,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu.
But sources said the government’s floor managers discussed how to de-escalate matters with only eight working days of the monsoon session remaining and the government needing to push the Goods and Services Tax or GST bill that will give effect to a major reform.
Two-thirds of each house must pass the GST bill, which amends the Constitution. The government does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha or upper house and needs the Congress’s support.
Parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party have asked Ms Mahajan to reconsider her order suspending the Congress lawmakers for “persistently, willfully obstructing” the House.
The suspension built new opposition unity, with nine parties boycotting the Lok Sabha on Tuesday to show solidarity with the Congress.
At a book release function, the Speaker said, “A caring mother sometimes has to be strict with her children.” She had suspended the Congress MPs after repeatedly warning them not to carry placards into the House as they demanded the resignation of three top BJP leaders caught in controversies.
Some allies of the ruling BJP, like the Akali Dal, have also said that the Speaker’s punishment is excessive. But there are others in the government who said they would use the quiet afforded by the boycott to clear some pending bills in the Lok Sabha.
With the Congress continuously protesting in Parliament, little work has got done in the monsoon session.
