New Delhi: As many as 45 opposition members in Rajya Sabha were on Monday suspended from the House for unruly behaviour and disregarding the directions of the Chair after they raised slogans over the Parliament security breach issue and disrupted proceedings.
Among those suspended were Congress MPs Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala and Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav. The development occurred soon after 33 opposition members, including leader of Congress Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK's T R Baalu and TMC's Sougata Ray, were suspended in Lok Sabha following similar scenes in the Lower House.
While 34 of the Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended for the remainder of the Winter session, 11 have been directed to stay away from the House pending an inquiry report on their conduct by the Committee of Privileges.
The members were suspended after the House adopted a motion moved by Leader of the House Piyush Goyal for suspension of 34 MPs for the remainder of the session and another one for referring cases of conduct of 11 other opposition MPs to the privileges committee.
The Committee has been asked to submit its report within three months and the 11 MPs will not be able to attend the proceedings of the House till then.
Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar first named the suspended members and then put the motion to vote, which was adopted by voice vote.
The opposition members were creating a din in the House while demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach in Lok Sabha and were raising slogans and disrupting proceedings of the House that saw repeated adjournments since morning.
The Winter session is slated to conclude on December 22. Among the 34 suspended for the remainder of the session, 12 MPs are from the Congress.
The suspended members are – Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, Amee Yajnik, Naranbhai J Rathwa, Syed Nasir Hussain, Shrimati Phulo Devi Netam, Shaktisinh Gohil, K C Venugopal, Rajani Ashokrao Patil, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi, Randeep Singh Surjewala (all of Congress), while seven members are from TMC – Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Santanu Sen, Mausam Noor, Prakash Chik Baraik and Samirul Islam.
Others suspended for the winter session are M Shanmugam, N R Elango, Kanimozhi NVN Somu, R Girirajan, Manoj Kumar Jha, Faiyaz Ahmad, V Sivadasan, Ram Nath Thakur, Aneel Prasad Hegde, Vandana Chavan, Ram Gopal Yadav, Javed Ali Khan, Mahua Maji, Jose K Mani and Ajit Kumar Bhuyan.
The 11 opposition members whose names have been referred to the privilege committee are – Jebi Mather Hisham, L Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, G C Chandrashekhar, Binoy Viswam, Sandosh Kumar P, Mohamed Abdulla, John Brittas and A A Rahim.
Govt wants to bulldoze key bills without Oppn, dissent: Cong
Terming the suspension of Opposition MPs in Parliament "murder of democracy", the Congress on Monday alleged that an "extreme level of dictatorship" was in place and the government wants to "bulldoze" important legislations through without any debate.
The Congress also alleged this is an "extension of the Gujarat assembly" in Parliament, an apparent swipe at the prime minister who was earlier the chief minister of the state.
Soon after the suspension of 33 opposition MPs of Lok Sabha and 45 of Rajya Sabha, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms have been thrown into the dustbin by this "autocratic" government and it has shown zero accountability towards Parliament.
"First, intruders attacked Parliament. Then Modi government attacking Parliament and Democracy. All Democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Government by suspending 47 MPs," he said in a post on X.
