Parliament Winter Session: INDIA bloc MPs to stage protest in front of Gandhi statue against bulk suspension today
Dec 19, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 19 : Members of Parliament of INDIA bloc parties, including those suspended, will stage a protest in front of the Gandhi statue in the Parliament premises on Tuesday morning over their suspension and the 'security breach' incident.
The opposition lawmakers seem to be unrelenting on the Parliament security breach incident that happened on December 13 and demand a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah inside the House.
The protest in front of the Gandhi statue is scheduled at 10.30 am, sources said.
A total of 78 MPs -- 33 from Lok Sabha and 45 from Rajya Sabha -- were suspended on Monday, following a ruckus over the demand by the Opposition of a statement from Union Minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach incident.
While 34 opposition Rajya Sabha MPs, including Congress' Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala were suspended for the remaining part of the session, the "misconduct" of 11 others was also referred to the Privileges Committee, which has been asked to give its report in three months. They have been suspended until the report is submitted by the panel.
The reason behind the suspension of opposition MPs for the rest of the Winter Session was cited as "misconduct" and failure to adhere to the directions of the Chair.
Following the suspensions on Monday, opposition MPs lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and accused it of being "autocratic."
Kharge said that "democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi government by suspending 47 MPs."
"With an Opposition-Less Parliament, the Modi government can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate." he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
He added that the opposition's demands include a statement from Shah on the security breach and a discussion in both houses.
Earlier on Monday, Congress' suspended MP Surjewala said that the suspension is an attack on democracy, the Constitution of India, and the Ganga-Jamuni culture of the country.
, "What has not happened in the history of the country in seventy-five years has happened now; ninety-two MPs have been suspended from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha... This is not an attack on our rights; we represent the people. This is an attack on the democracy of this country. The Constitution of this country has been attacked. The Ganga-Jamuni culture of this country has been attacked. The tradition of the Constitution has been attacked in this country. The parliamentary decorum of this country has been attacked," he said.
