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Journalism of Courage
A total of 33 Opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha Monday for disrupting the proceedings of the House over the recent Parliament security breach incident.
The suspension duration varied, with 30 MPs – including leader of the Congress in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T R Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran from the DMK, and Saugata Roy from the TMC – being suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session.
Three MPs – Abdul Khaleque, K Jeyakumar and Vijay Vasanth – were suspended pending report of the Privileges Committee of the House. Their cases have been referred to the Privileges panel. They had climbed on to the Speaker’s podium to raise slogans. All of them are from the Congress.
Abdul Khaleque, 52, is the Congress MP from Barpeta in Assam. He had earlier served as the party MLA from the Jania Assembly constituency, winning in 2006 and 2016. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he secured 44.23% votes against Kumar Deepak Das of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), who got 34.61%.
After completing his post-graduate degree in the Assamese language from Gauhati University in the early 1990s, Khaleque completed his post-graduation in International Relations from Vinayaka Missions University in 2010. According to his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in 2019, he had no criminal cases against him.
Khaleque has been vocal in campaigns for the rights of landless individuals allegedly living illegally on the government land, and was also opposed to the proposed dissolving of Assam Cha Mazdoor Sangha. He had earlier served as the founder-chairman of the Assam Institute of Advanced Studies, and used to be the press secretary of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi.
Prior to his stint as MP, he also served as an associate member of the Delimitation Commission from 2006-2008, chairperson of the Assam Board of Wakfs, and as members of various committees in the Assam Assembly.
On Monday he was among a group of Opposition MPs who displayed placards inside the House during protests demanding a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on last week’s Parliament security breach.
The 40-year-old Congress MP from Kanyakumari, Vijay Vasanth, followed a well-trodden route in Tamil Nadu politics. The son of a Congress veteran and businessman, Vasanth was a film actor before he forayed into politics by contesting on his father H Vasanthakumar’s Lok Sabha seat following his death from Covid-19 in 2020.
Not only did his father’s demise catapult Vasanth into electoral politics, it also transformed him professionally. Vasanthakumar’s popularity in Kanyakumari ensured his son’s smooth bypoll victory in 2021.
Vasanth is committed to grassroots work as he believes in “direct, on-ground engagement with people”. He represents a new generation of Congress politicians from the South who are said to be ambitious and enterprising.
K Jeyakumar, 73, is the Congress MP from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu. He is a seasoned politician who is among the state leaders close to the Congress high command. Hailing from Namakkal in western Tamil Nadu, his journey in politics led him to Tiruvallur near Chennai, where he found his electoral base in a reserved constituency. A prominent Dalit face of the state Congress, he has played various key roles including as an office-bearer of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), a two-term MLA from the Namakkal constituency and as the Namakkal MP since 2019. He has a notable educational background that includes MTech and PhD degrees.
