The new Parliament building
New Delhi: Indian Parliament on December 18, 2023, set a record in terms of suspension of members in a single day when 78 lawmakers were suspended across Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha till at least the end of the ongoing winter session. The Opposition members also repeatedly went against a consensus on not displaying placards in the House.
The Members of Parliament (MPs) – all belonging to the Opposition benches, had joined the chorus demanding a discussion on last week’s security breach in the Parliament House, and statements from the Prime Minister and the Home Minister on the same.
Earlier, last week too, 14 MPs were suspended from Parliament, which takes the number of suspended members to 92 and includes 46 Lok Sabha members of which 33 were suspended today. 14 of the suspended members are also required to appear before the Privileges Committee of Parliament.
The Congress Party president Mallikarjun Khadge said the Opposition has two demands – “1. The Union Home Minister should make a statement in both Houses of Parliament on the serious breach in the security of Parliament. 2. There should be a detailed discussion on this.”
Launching a frontal attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge posted on social media platform X: “There was an attack on Parliament on 13 December 2023. Today again Modi government has attacked Parliament and democracy. By suspending 92 opposition MPs so far, all democratic systems have been thrown into the dustbin by the autocratic Modi government.”
Modi is understood to have criticised the Opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings.
The leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, accused the Opposition of not wanting to run the Upper House particularly when it was to discuss an “important” issue related to the women’s reservation bill. “Whenever there is an issue related to the OBCs, or work related to giving rights to those who are backward or Modi government takes steps for women’s empowerment, the Congress and the Communists are pained…,” he said.
– global bihari bureau
