"BJP should be ashamed...": Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on suspension of 143 MPs from Parliament
Dec 21, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 21 : Hitting out at the Centre over the bulk suspension of opposition MPs from Parliament, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said on Thursday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government should be ashamed of 'tarnishing history.'
The Congress leader was part of the suspended MPs' march from the Parliament building to Vijay Chowk to protest against the suspension of opposition lawmakers, who were demanding Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement on the December 13 security breach incident.
Tiwari, one of the suspended Rajya Sabha MPs, said that 143 Members of Parliament have never been suspended in the country's history before.
"The suspension of 143 members has never happened in the history of India. BJP should be ashamed, which has tarnished history. We were only demanding a discussion on such an incident which never happened before in history. If this shameful incident has happened, will the Home Minister not even answer?.. Keeping all these things in mind, we tried our best there (inside Parliament) but were suspended (from the house). That is why we have come among the public," he said.
The suspended lawmaker said that the Centre wants to create an opposition-less Parliament.
A total of 143 MPs--97 from Lok Sabha and 46 from Rajya Sabha--are currently suspended so far for creating a ruckus and disrupting proceedings in both Houses, while they were demanding a statement from Union Minister Amit Shah about the Parliament security breach incident.
Taking part in the protest march, another suspended MP, John Brittas of CPI(M), said that the Centre should now amend the Constitution to say that India is a monarchy.
"We are protesting against the brutal killing of the democracy; the democracy has been massacred. You could see the Union Home Minister unilaterally; this is the Opposition-Mukt Parliament. They (the Centre) should now amend the Constitution to say that India is a monarchy," Brittas said while speaking to ANI.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule said that the suspension of opposition MPs from Parliament is a murder of democracy.
"This is a murder of democracy, an insult to the Constitution. The country is run by the Constitution, and I condemn the way (over) 140 MPs have been suspended. It seems that an emergency has been imposed in the country," she said.
Sule said that the passage of three criminal law bills--the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita Bill, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita Bill and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill--in Lok Sabha yesterday in the absence of 97 MPs is 'undemocratic'.
"We were ready for discussion from day one, I was telling the government from day one to sit and discuss but we were suspended before that," she added.
The draft legislations, which seek to replace the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) of 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, respectively, were passed by a voice vote on Wednesday, even as 97 opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha sat out the proceedings after being suspended.
