A total of 141 Members of Parliament have been suspended from Parliament during its ongoing winter session. This is the highest figure in the history of Indian democracy. As many as 49 Lok Sabha members were suspended on Tuesday; with this, the count of members suspended from the lower house skyrocketed to 95. From Rajya Sabha, till date, 46 members have been suspended. With this, the opposition bloc has lost half of its strength in Rajya Sabha and mostly one-third of its strength in the Rajya Sabha
Table of Contents
Why were the MPs suspended?
The trigger for the suspension is the ongoing protest from the opposition MPS demanding a discussion on the recent Parliament security breach. The ones resorting to sloganeering, and screaming were met with stern action. The members held placards and shouted “PM sadan mein aao. Gruh Mantri istifa do” They demanded the Prime minister, Narendra Modi to come to the Parliament and demanded the Home Minister, Amit Shah to resign from this post.
Although the Prime Minister never spoke in Parliament but told Dainik Jagran that what happened is very serious and there is no need to conduct a debate on this matter. He further said there should be a detailed investigation. Amit Shah has also maintained his silence in the parliament but during an event assured that a high-level inquiry is set up to investigate the incident. He accused the opposition of politicizing the incident.
On a single day, a record 78 MPs were suspended followed by another 49 on December 19th, pushing the total to 141. The mass suspension raises questions about the state of democracy in the country where the right to question the government and the right to hold government accountable by the opposition is taken away.
Reaction from the opposition
The mass suspension of members was highly criticized. Opposition leaders declared it to be a politically motivated move aimed at silencing dissent. President of the Congress Party – Mallikarjun Kharge commented that the Prime minister and the home minister have time to give interviews to newspapers and Television channels but have no accountability to the Parliament that represents the country.
Shashi Tharoor, Thiruvananthapuram MP, predicted his suspension on X (formerly Twitter). He wrote he expected the suspension to follow and called it a badge of honour to be defenestrated by the unfair process. He further wrote, in his 15 years of parliamentary career he entered the wall of the house with the placard. He stated that he did it “out of solidarity” for his party colleagues who were unjustly suspended on 18th December. He termed his suspension a “betrayal of parliamentary democracy”
Some opposition leaders accused the Bhartiya Janata Pary (BJP) of intentionally suspending opposition to get the opportunity to pass key bills without any debates. Congress took its official handle on X (formerly Twitter) to accuse the party of building an opposition, Mukt Lok Sabha. The leader of the Indian National Congress said it is nothing but anarchy inside the Parliament.
BJP leader Piyush Goyal labeled the opposition’s protest as pre-planned to disrupt the functioning of parliament. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla stated that the security of the house comes under the secretariat’s purview and won’t let the center intervene
About the security breach
On the 22nd anniversary of the Parliament attacks of 2001, another security breach occurred when four individuals entered the premises with smoke cans. The attackers had planned a twin attack—inside and outside the parliament area. The police were quick to nab the four accused and caught two more people involved in the planning. A day after the breach, 13 Lok Sabha MP’s were suspended on the grounds of unruly behavior.
