33 Oppn MPs suspended from Lok Sabha over Parliament security breach protests

List of suspended MPs.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MPs T R Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran and Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Saugata Roy are also among the suspended MPs. Others are Kalyan Banerjee, Aparupa Poddar, Pratima Mondal, Kakori Ghosh Dastidar, Shatabdi Roy, Asit Kumar Mal, Sunil Kumar Mandal and Prasun Banerjee (TMC); E T Mohammed Basheer and Kani K Navas (IUML); DMK’s A Raja, G Selvam, S Ramalingam, S S Palanimanickam, Annadurai CN, T Sumathy and Kalanidhi Veeraswamy; RSP’s N K Premachandran; Kaushalendra Kumar of the JD(U), Congress MPs Subburaman Thirunavukkarasar, Anto Antony, K Muraleedharan, K Suresh, Amar Singh, Rajmohan Unnithan and Gaurav Gogoi.

After being named by the Chair in the afternoon, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion regarding the suspension and it was adopted by a voice vote. The House was then adjourned for the day.

The Opposition MPs who rushed to the well of the House as soon as it met on Monday initially forced the proceedings to be adjourned till 12 noon before continuing their protests. Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the Chair when the House met at noon, warned of action against the members if they continued to protest with placards.

“Showing placards in the House is a violation of rules. The Speaker has already warned you. You should not show placards in the House… It will spoil your case. There would be action against you. Do not force the Chair to take action against you,” Agrawal told the MPs standing in the well.

The suspension of the MPs comes in the backdrop of the Opposition INDIA bloc deciding to continue their protests inside Parliament and face action in solidarity with the MPs who were suspended on Friday.

The Parliament security breach on December 13 saw two men with smoke cans jumping into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery. The issue has since snowballed into a full-blown confrontation between the Opposition and the government as Opposition MPs have continued their protests pressing for a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the breach. The MPs also sought the resignation of the Home Minister and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi issue a statement in Parliament.

On Thursday, as many as 13 Opposition MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha for disrupting proceedings. This included Congress’s Manickam Tagore, Benny Behanan, V K Sreekandan, Mohammad Jawed, Hibi Eden, T N Prathapan, Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and Dean Kuriakose; CPM’s P R Natarajan and S Venkatesan; DMK’s Kanimozhi; and K Subbarayan of the CPI. In Rajya Sabha, TMC’s Derek O’Brien was suspended over the same issue.