The Lok Sabha on Thursday suspended seven Congress MPs for the remaining period of the budget session for “gross misconduct” as the government used its brute majority to pass a motion of suspension in the House after they were named by the Speaker’s Chair.

The budget session ends on April 3.

The Opposition MPs, particularly the Congress and the DMK, have been protesting in the well of the House, for the past three days, demanding an immediate discussion on the Delhi riots. The government, however, has refused to accept the demand, claiming the priority now is restore peace and wants the discussion after Holi.

Chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi, who was presiding over the House in the absence of Speaker Om Birla, named the seven Congress MPs at 3pm, condemning their conduct of forcefully snatching papers from the Speaker’s table and tossing them, in “utter disregard” for House rules and “gross misconduct” at a time when a bill was being discussed.

Once a member is named by the Speaker’s Chair, the MP cannot attend the House for the rest of the day. After the MPs were named, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to suspend the seven MPs from the House for the remaining period of the budget session.

The motion was passed by a voice vote, disregarding Opposition protests. The House was then adjourned for the day.

“That this House having taken serious note of gross misconduct of these members’ in utter disregard to the House and authority of the Chair and having been named by the Speaker resolve that these members be suspended from the service of the House from the remainder of the session,” Joshi said, reading out the motion.

The suspended members are Gaurav Gogoi, T.N. Prathapan, Dean Kuriakose, Manicka Tagore, Rajmohan Unnithan, Benny Behanan and Gurjeet Singh Aujla.

The Congress described the suspension as a “dictatorial decision” taken by the government and not the Speaker, aimed at weakening the Opposition’s voice and suppressing its demand for a debate over the Delhi riots.

“The government is hell-bent on throttling the voice of the Opposition. But we will not budge from our own demand that the Delhi riot issue has to be discussed inside the Parliament. It is our legitimate right, it is our moral duty,” Congress House leader Adhir Chowdhury told reporters later.

“Suspend us for a year, but discuss the Delhi riots and heal the wounds of people,” Gogoi, one of the suspended MPs, said.

Minister Joshi said he was unable to understand the problem of the Congress when it had been agreed that the government is ready to discuss in detail the Delhi riots after Holi on March 11.