Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah on Thursday skipped Parliament proceedings, avoiding facing questions on Wednesday’s security breach, while their government went on the offensive and got 14 Opposition members suspended from both Houses as they demanded answers.

Shah later broke his silence at an India Today conclave, accusing the Opposition of “politicising the issue” while acknowledging a “chuk” (lapse).

The suspended Opposition members were held guilty of “misconduct” and “utter disregard of authority of the Chair”.

But no action was taken against Mysore MP Pratap Simmha of the BJP, whose recommendation had facilitated the issuance of visitors’ passes to the two men who had jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber on Wednesday and sprayed coloured smoke from canisters while proceedings were on.

“Mistake has taken place. I don’t deny that... but the Opposition is playing politics over it,” Shah said at the India Today event in answer to a question.

“The Opposition should wait for the report of the inquiry ordered by the Speaker instead of politicising the issue,” he added, saying the report would come soon.

He stressed that the Speaker was the custodian of the Lok Sabha, appearing to imply that the government was therefore not to blame for the security breach.

Modi and Shah were present in the Parliament complex on Thursday but did not attend either House. Opposition MPs chanted slogans in the Wells of both Houses, demanding the duo come, make a statement and answer questions on Wednesday’s security breach.

Some of the slogans called for the home minister’s resignation and the expulsion of Simmha.

The government swiftly pushed resolutions and got 15 Opposition members — 14 from the Lok Sabha and Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien — suspended for the rest of the winter session.

However, it turned out that one of the 15 — DMK Lok Sabha member S.R. Parthiban — was not in the House but in Chennai. His name was withdrawn from the list, with parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi claiming a case of “mistaken identity”.

The 13 suspended Lok Sabha members include nine from the Congress, two from the CPM, one from the DMK and one from the CPI.

Among the nine Congress MPs, six are from Kerala: Dean Kuriakose, T.N. Prathapan, Ramya Haridas, Hibi Eden, Benny Behnan and V.K. Sreekandan. The three others are Manickam Tagore, Jothimani (both from Tamil Nadu) and Mohammed Jawed (Bihar).

DMK member Kanimozhi, CPM members P.R. Natarajan and S. Venkatesan, and the CPI’s K. Subbarayan complete the list.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla sought to absolve the government. He repeatedly told the protesting Opposition members that he was the “custodian” of the Parliament premises and was therefore responsible for its security, obliquely suggesting that he and not Modi or Shah should be blamed.

“As the Speaker, the security of all of you is my responsibility. For this, we will all sit and hold discussions,” Birla said during Question Hour as Opposition members trooped into the Well.

“Pradhanmantri sadan me aao, home minister jawab do (Prime Minister, come to the House; home minister, give answers),” they chanted.

Slogans of “Home minister resign karo” too were heard, and placards saying “Amit Shah must resign” waved.

“Ye hamara shetradhikar hai (This is my domain),” the Speaker responded.

The Opposition members refused to budge even after defence minister Rajnath Singh, the only senior Treasury bench member present in the House, urged them to condemn the incident in one voice and not create a ruckus.

After one adjournment, Opposition MPs were suspended during two afternoon sittings, with parliamentary affairs minister Joshi accusing them of “playing politics on a grave national issue”.

Joshi urged the Opposition to “rise above political affiliations” and speak in “one voice”, stressing that such incidents had happened in the past too.

“Hon. Speaker is the custodian of the Parliament House complex, and internal security of the Parliament House is under the purview of the hon. Speaker,” Joshi said.

After this, Joshi moved a resolution to suspend five MPs. Later, others too were suspended, the resolutions being passed by voice vote.

The first suspension took place in the Rajya Sabha. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected Opposition demands for a statement from Shah and a discussion of the security breach, and suspended O’Brien for “unruly conduct”.

Outside the House, Kanimozhi contrasted the inaction on Simha with the swift expulsion of Trinamul member Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha over the cash-for-query controversy.

“There is an MP who has actually given the passes for these people to come in. No action has been taken against that MP. Whereas we saw what happened in Mahua’s case,” she said.

“He’s (Simha) inside Parliament with us. And when we protested that we want the PM and the home minister to come and give a statement in the House, they are suspending all the Opposition MPs.”

Simha was learnt to have been present in Parliament both on Wednesday and Thursday. Although he didn’t come before the media, sources close to him said he had met the Speaker and offered an explanation.

He purportedly told Birla that the father of accused D. Manoranjan was a prominent resident of his constituency and had approached his office seeking a pass for his son and his friend (accused Sagar Sharma) to see the new Parliament building.

The rules say that MPs should run a background check before recommending passes, and take “full responsibility” for the visitors they recommend.

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal wondered how the BJP government would have responded had the recommendation for the pass come from an Opposition member.

“If it had been a member of the Opposition or a political party belonging to the Opposition, he would have been under (anti-terror law) UAPA,” Sibal, a prominent lawyer and former Congress MP, said.

On the demand for a statement from Shah, Sibal said: “The home minister must come; he should have come earlier. He should have come immediately. He should have made a statement saying ‘We’re very concerned’, expressed sympathy and expressed concern because this has happened in a new building which should have taken care of all possibilities.”

The government’s aggression seemed to have steeled the Opposition’s resolve.

“Tomorrow, all the Opposition members will protest in the Well of the House. Let the government suspend all of us,” Trinamul member Sudip Bandyopadhyay told reporters.

Opposition members said they would not allow Parliament to function until Modi and Shah came to the House and made a statement.

“We had just one demand, that the home minister come to the House and give a statement,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, flanked by other INDIA bloc leaders.

“This dictatorial government does not find it acceptable.… Unless he comes to the House and does that, there are very slim chances (of) the House (functioning).”