The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday suspended a record 19 Opposition MPs for showing “utter disregard” for the House, escalating tensions between the ruling and Opposition benches as the harsh disciplinary action came a day after four Congress Lok Sabha MPs were barred from proceedings.

Rajya Sabha deputy Chairman Harivansh named the MPs under Rule 256 and the government subsequently moved a resolution for their suspension for the rest of the week as they continued with their protest over price rise and other issues.

The agitating MPs were accused of showing “utter disregard” for the House and the Chair by waving placards and raising slogans to disrupt proceedings.

This is the highest number of MPs suspended at one go in the Rajya Sabha, sources in the Upper House said.

Last year, 12 MPs had been suspended for unruly behaviour.

Of the 19 MPs, seven are from the Trinamul Congress, six from the DMK, three from the TRS, two from the CPM and one from the CPI.

The 19 suspended MPs are: Sushmita Dev, Mausam Noor, Shanta Chhetri, Dola Sen, Santanu Sen, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Md Nadimul Haque of the Trinamul Congress; M. Mohamed Abdulla, S. Kalyanasundaram, R. Girirajan, N.R. Elango, M. Shanmugam and Kanimozhi N.V.N. Somu of the DMK; B. Lingaiah Yadav, Ravichandra Vaddiraju and Damodar Rao Divakonda of the TRS; A.A. Rahim and V. Sivadasan of the CPM; and Sandosh Kumar P. of the CPI.

No Congress MP figured on the suspended list as the party was out on the streets en bloc to protest against the government on multiple issues.

The suspensions betrayed the ruling dispensation’s intention to crack down on the Opposition, which is looking to corner the government over the rise in prices of essentials.

The Opposition has been protesting and stalling proceedings in both Houses of Parliament over prices in general, and the GST on essentials and the Agnipath recruitment scheme in particular, since the monsoon session began on July 18.

The Opposition has been demanding an immediate discussion on the price rise while the government has been delaying it on the ground that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is down with Covid.

The government’s intention of escalating the tensions with the Opposition was evident on Tuesday afternoon as the Opposition continued with their protests inside and outside Parliament, refusing to budge after the suspension of four Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha.

An indication of the harsh action to follow came when the leader of the Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, and parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi were seen rushing to a meeting with home minister Amit Shah during the lunch break.

The resolution to suspend the 19 MPs came after the meeting. After the suspension, the MPs refused to withdraw from the House, prompting two quick adjournments that brought no change in the situation and forced the Chair to adjourn the House for the day.

Goyal later defended the suspension of the 19 MPs for the rest of the week, claiming the decision was taken with a “heavy heart” as they had repeatedly ignored the Chair’s warnings. The four Lok Sabha MPs of the Congress have been suspended for the rest of the session, which is scheduled to run till August 12.

Goyal accused the Opposition of running away from a discussion, claiming the government had managed inflation much better than many other countries.

“The government will schedule a discussion once the finance minister recovers and returns to the House,” he said.

The Trinamul leader in the Rajya Sabha countered the government. “Opposition parties have conveyed to government a week ago that they wish FM a speedy recovery and that ANY CABINET MINISTER can reply to the discussion on price rise,” Derek O’Brien tweeted.

Congress media department head and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said that with the suspension of MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, “it is abundantly clear that the Modi sarkar is in no mood to allow the Opposition to raise REAL URGENT issues being faced by the people of our country in Parliament”.

The government’s aggression appeared to have been fuelled by the impression of disunity within the Opposition, and the Opposition’s inability to mount any serious challenge.

The issue, however, seemed to have galvanised the Opposition to some extent, the suspensions having gone beyond the Congress and involved, in particular, the Trinamul Congress that had decided to abstain from voting in the vice-presidential election next month.

DMK, NCP and Left MPs agitated in the well of the Lok Sabha, demanding revocation of the suspension of the four Congress MPs, and forced adjournments.