Day after breach, turmoil in Parliament: 14 Opp MPs suspended for rest of session

The initial announcement on the suspensions had the name of another Lok Sabha member, DMK’s S R Parthiban, who said later that he was not even in the House. A circular later on the suspensions did not include Parthiban.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said Parthiban’s name was withdrawn from the list of the Lok Sabha members suspended earlier in the day as there was a mistake on the part of the staff in identifying the member.

While TMC’s Derek O’Brien was suspended from Rajya Sabha, as many as 13 Opposition MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha for disrupting proceedings. The 13 members are 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 CPI.

The Opposition INDIA bloc called the action “dictatorial” and said they will continue to press for a statement from Shah in both the Houses.

Senior ministers, on the other hand, told the two Houses that a high-level inquiry had already been ordered into the Wednesday incident and asked the Opposition not to politicise the issue.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Anurag Thakur held a meeting.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said all MPs must exercise caution while giving visitor passes to people. “I believe in the future… all MPs, be it from the treasury or the Opposition, need to remain alert and exercise caution… whoever we give passes to… should not come (to the House) and create anarchic situations… This has to be ensured not just by the treasury but also the Opposition. In our old Parliament too, we have had incidents of protests, throwing of papers and jumping. We all need to condemn it together,” he said.

“Everyone has condemned what has happened yesterday. Taking immediate cognizance of it, you (Speaker Om Birla) have ordered an enquiry. You have also asked for steps to be taken to ensure such things do not happen again. So, I believe there is no need to precipitate such anarchy (by the Opposition) in the House,” he said.

In Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar suspended Derek O’Brien on charges of “unruly behaviour” and “misconduct” after the TMC floor leader moved closer to the Chairman’s podium, raising slogans.

Dhankhar named O’Brien first, warned him against disrupting the House proceedings and asked him to leave the House before adjourning the proceedings. But O’Brien did not leave.

When the House reassembled, the Chairman allowed Leader of the House Piyush Goyal to move a motion for suspension of O’Brien even as Opposition MPs protested.

But O’Brien did not vacate the House even after his suspension, prompting the Chairman to observe that it was a serious violation and wilful defiance of the Chair. Goyal then moved a second motion under Rule 192 to refer his conduct to the Committee of Privileges of the Rajya Sabha.

“The motion is adopted. The matter stands referred to the Committee of Privileges of the Rajya Sabha for examination, investigation and report within a period of three months,” Dhankhar said. O’Brien later held a silent protest in the Parliament complex.

In both the Houses, senior ministers – Goyal in Rajya Sabha and Joshi in Lok Sabha – urged the Opposition not to politicise the breach. In both Houses, Opposition members also sought action against BJP MP Pratap Simha, who had recommended visitor passes to the two men who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber Wednesday. They also raised slogans demanding the resignation of Shah.

As Opposition MPs shouted slogans, Speaker Birla said, “Whatever happened yesterday, we are worried about that. The security of the Parliament is the responsibility of the Parliament Secretariat. We all know that all of this comes under Lok Sabha. That is why I had a discussion with you yesterday. We will again have a discussion. The responsibility of security is with the Lok Sabha Secretariat. It will discuss the matter with you again. This is the wrong way.”

As the protests continued, Birla said, “Government cannot interfere in the functioning of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. I will not allow it either. Do not start a wrong tradition. Such incidents have happened earlier too. We will discuss them as well. That such things do not happen in future, we will discuss that as well. That is our privilege. Everyone’s safety is my responsibility.”

When the protests continued in the afternoon, the 13 MPs were suspended in two tranches on motions moved separately by Minister Joshi.