Barely months before the next general election, most Opposition leaders have raised the spectre of a mortal threat to parliamentary democracy as the suspension spree continued in the Lok Sabha with 49 more facing the axe on Tuesday.

While the Opposition leaders screamed about intolerance and repression on Monday, they expressed apprehensions about a sinister design to destroy democracy on Tuesday, portraying the 2024 election as the last opportunity to redeem India as a democracy. Many leaders felt any other government would have made conciliatory gestures after suspending over 100 MPs but the absence of remorse and corrective measures compelled them to smell something far more sinister.

As MPs from Opposition parties protested on the Parliament campus, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said: “There is a conspiracy to make Parliament irrelevant. The Prime Minister is a pracharak (publicist) of the RSS, which doesn’t believe in democracy. This is being done to destroy parliamentary democracy. Hitler had followed the same route; initially coming to power using democratic means.”

Expressing shock at the government’s crackdown on the Opposition for making the most normal demand for a statement by the home minister on the serious security breach in Parliament, Digvijaya said: “What were the security personnel doing when the boys jumped into the Lok Sabha (from the visitors’ gallery)? They should have jumped too. All those present in the House would have been gone in five minutes had they brought any poisonous gas in the canister. I have done some research… there is a toxic gas called Sarin.”

Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor, who too was suspended on Tuesday for entering the Well with a placard demanding a statement from the home minister, said: “We should start writing the obituary of parliamentary democracy. They want a Parliament without Opposition. This is a disgrace. They have no respect for parliamentary democracy.”

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said: “If they (BJP) come again, there will be no constitutional rule in India”.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh posted on X: “A complete purge is being executed so that draconian bills are passed without any meaningful debate, and so that the BJP MP who facilitated the entry of the two intruders into the Lok Sabha on December 13th goes scot-free. The new Parliament reflects Namocracy in all its tyranny.”

"Namo" is used as the short form of Narendra Modi by his supporters.

Another Lok Sabha MP, Manish Tewari, said: “Parliament has been completely delegitimised. This is to lay the framework for the most draconian laws in Parliament which will turn this country into a police state.”

NCP member Supriya Sule wrote on X: “It’s a shame, it’s a black day for our democracy. Today the BJP Government suspended another 49 Lok Sabha MPs, totalling to 141 MPs, including myself for merely demanding a discussion be it on the security breach, or the surge in onion prices!”

Sule added: “It seems that apart from evading responsibility for serious issues that the country is facing, the blanket suspension is to ensure smooth passing of the Orwellian bills in the list of business for today and tomorrow: 1. Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill 2023 — Impeaches on the freedom of press, speech and expression. 2. Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners Bill 2023 — Tramples on the independence of the Election Commission and puts it under the thumb of the Central Government. 3. Telecommunication Bill 2023 — Gives Central Government the discretion to suspend telecom services, tap phones in the interest of ‘public safety’. 4. Criminal Law Amendments — Overcriminalisation and dilution of safeguards to establish police control over the citizenry. We shall stand strong against the assault by the BJP Government on the constitutional fabric of our country.”