The Narendra Modi government on Monday appeared to be striving for an Opposition-mukt Parliament, getting 78 MPs suspended in one fell swoop on the charge of violating the August House’s dignity with their “unruly” protests.
The action against 33 Lok Sabha members and 45 Rajya Sabha MPs comes four days after 14 MPs — 13 from the Lower House — were suspended for the same offence: vociferously demanding a statement from home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday’s Parliament security breach.
A livid Opposition termed the mass suspension a “bloodbath” and the “murder of democracy”, accusing the government of reaching ever higher levels of “tanasahi” (dictatorship) to muzzle dissent.
Prime Minister Modi and Shah have continued to skip Parliament since two youths stormed the Lok Sabha chamber with smoke canisters on Wednesday. They have, however, spoken on the subject to a section of the media, accusing the Opposition of “politicising the issue” and advising it to shun protests and calls for debate.
With 78 MPs suspended on a single day — a feat a veteran said was unprecedented — the number of Opposition members suspended in the current winter session has reached a record 92, split evenly (46-46) between the two Houses.
Further, the conduct of 3 of the 33 suspended Lok Sabha members and 11 of the 45 Rajya Sabha MPs has been referred to the privileges committee of either House. They are accused of severe violations that will see them suspended for as long as the committee does not clear them. The rest are suspended for the ongoing winter session.
Former Lok Sabha secretary-general P.D.T. Achary said Monday’s mass suspension had set a record, outdoing the single-day figure of 63 ousted from the Lok Sabha in 1989 over their protests demanding the tabling of the Thakkar Commission report on Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
“Just as a cart runs on two wheels, Parliament functions with the participation of the government and the Opposition. If one wheel is not there, Parliament cannot function in the true sense,” Achary told The Telegraph.
The axe fell first on the Lok Sabha 33, during the post-lunch session, before the script was repeated in the Upper House with 45 more scalps.
The suspended Lok Sabha members include seniors like Adhir Chowdhury and T.R. Baalu — House leaders of the Congress and the DMK — apart from N.K. Premchandran (RSP), Sougata Roy (Trinamul), A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran (both DMK).
Among the prominent faces the Opposition INDIA bloc now has left in the Lower House are Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamul Congress.
As for the Rajya Sabha, almost the entire Opposition leadership has been swept out. The names include Jairam Ramesh, K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Pramod Tiwari, Shaktisinh Gohil (all Congress); Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamul). Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has been spared.
Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury during the Winter session of Parliament in New Delhi on Monday, PTI picture
The INDIA bloc now has only about 25-30 members left in the Upper House.
“PM can give an interview to a newspaper; Home Minister can give interviews to TV channels. But, they have ZERO accountability left to the Parliament — which represents the PEOPLE OF INDIA!” Kharge posted on X.
“With an Opposition-Less Parliament, the Modi government can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush dissent, without any debate.”
Adhir told reporters: “They want to run the House like their party office. The heavens wouldn’t have fallen had Amit Shah made a statement in the House instead of speaking to the media. We have been suspended for seeking his statement. This is tanasahi.”
Ramesh, the Congress communications chief, termed the suspensions a “bloodbath” and coined the acronym “MODI” for “murder of democracy in India”.
“Not only in the Lok Sabha, today was a bloodbath in the Rajya Sabha with 45 INDIA party MPs getting suspended for demanding a statement by the Home Minister on the December 13th security breach, and for demanding that the Leader of the Opposition be allowed to speak,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
“Incidentally, I too figure in this Roll of Honour — for the first time in my parliamentary career of 19 years. This is Murder of Democracy in India (MODI) at work!”
Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi defended the mass suspension, accusing the Opposition of ignoring repeated pleas from the Speaker and violating a unanimous decision not to wave placards in the new Parliament building.
“Mr Speaker, at the business advisory meeting you had urged the members not to bring placards in the new Parliament building. Leaders of all the parties had supported it and given their consent that they will not bring placards,” Joshi said during Question Hour in the morning as Opposition MPs protested in the Well of the House.
He added: “I appeal to you (Opposition members) with folded hands to abide by the decision and allow the House to function.”
The Opposition members, who have since Friday been daring the government to suspend them too, like the 14 banished on Thursday, refused to budge.
“Home minister, come to the House,” some shouted. “Arrest the BJP MP,” chanted others, asking why no action had been taken against ruling party member Pratap Simmha who had facilitated the issuance of visitors’ passes to the two youths who stormed the Lok Sabha.
Before Joshi, Speaker Om Birla too had sought to calm the Opposition, repeating what he had written in an open letter to MPs.
He said that as the custodian of Parliament, security was his responsibility and not the government’s. He stressed that all the political parties had agreed not to bring placards into the new Parliament building.
“It is unfortunate that some members are playing politics over this incident,” Birla told the House.
At one point, three Congress members walked up to the Speaker’s podium, waved placards and shouted slogans. The government claimed this kind of violation had never taken place before.
These three MPs — K. Jayakumar, Abdul Khaleque and Vijaykumar aka Vijay Vasanth — were referred to the privileges committee.
After repeated adjournments, the Chair named 33 MPs and the government moved a resolution to suspend them for the remainder of the session for “unruly behaviour” and showing “utter disregard to the authority of the Chair”. The resolution was passed by voice vote.
The Rajya Sabha too witnessed adjournments since morning as the Opposition demanded a statement from Shah on the security breach. Some members entered the Well with placards and chanted slogans.
Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar invited leader of the Opposition Kharge to meet him in his chamber to discuss a way out of the impasse, but the Congress member declined.
After the House reassembled at 4pm, Dhankhar said the leader of the Opposition had insulted the Chairman by rejecting his invitation to meet him. Although Kharge kept raising his hand for permission to speak, Dhankhar did not give him an opportunity and adjourned the House.
“It is a very painful day. The House has been reduced to a shouting brigade. I have taken this (decision) with deep anguish,” Dhankhar said before moving to suspend 45 MPs.
House leader Piyush Goyal moved two motions, one to suspend 34 MPs and another to suspend 11 more and refer their conduct for investigation by the privileges committee.
Congress Rajya Sabha member Kumar Ketkar told this newspaper that several among these 11 MPs were due to retire in March, and might now be denied the customary farewell if the privileges committee does not clear them by then.
