The Lok Sabha witnessed an unprecedented spate of suspensions for the third time this session, with another 49 Members of the Parliament (MPs) suspended and the House adjourned on Tuesday, December 19, for alleged disruption of House proceedings. The suspended MPs include senior Congress leaders Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor and other MPs such as Thol Thirumavalavan, Farooq Abdullah, Dimple Yadav, Karti Chidambaram, and Danish Ali. So far, 141 MPs have been suspended from both Houses during the winter session.
The Opposition bloc has been demanding a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the December 13 Parliament security breach and revocation of suspension of MPs on December 14 and 18.
Speaking to the media, Manish Tewari said, “The Parliament has been totally de-legitimised. This is to lay the framework for passing the most draconian laws in the Parliament, which will turn this country into a police state.” He was referring to the Bills that are likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha replacing the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Jairam Ramesh, who was suspended on Monday, posted on X, “Today alone, at least 50 more MPs from Indian parties were suspended from the Lok Sabha! The Opposition is being completely decimated so that dangerous Bills can be passed without any meaningful debate. This is also happening so that the BJP MPs who got the two accused admitted into the Lok Sabha on December 13 are clean. All kinds of atrocities of 'Namocracy' are coming to light in the new Parliament,” he said.
The other suspended MPs are Ve Vaithilingam, Gurjeet Singh Auila, Supriya Sule, SS Ulaka, Adoor Prakash, Abdussamad Samadani, Manish Tewari, Pradyut Bordoloi, Giridhari Yadav, Geeta Kora, Francisco Sardinha, S Jagathrakshakan, SR Parthiban, Farooq Abdullah, Jyotsna Mahant, A Ganeshamurthi, Mala Roy, P Velusamy, AvChellakumar, Mohammad Sadique, MK Vishnu Prasad, PP Mohammed Faizal, Sajda Ahmed, Jasbir Gill, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Hasnain Masoodi, Khalilur Rahaman, Rajeev Ranjan Singh, DNV Senthilkumar S, Santosh Kumar, Dulal Chand Goswami, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, K Sudhakaran, Amol Kolhe, Sushil Kumar Rinku, Mahabali Singh, Sunil Kumar, Dr ST Hasan, Dhanush M Kumar, Pratibha Singh, Chandeshwar Prasad, Alok Kumar Suman, and Dileshwar Kamait.
Rajendra Agarwal, who was in Chair in the Lok Sabha, said that it was very unfortunate that he had to name the MPs. Before moving the resolution, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said it had been agreed earlier that no placards would be brought inside the House. “They are bringing the placards and disrespecting the Chair. Their desperation is clearly visible after the results of five state assembly elections," Joshi said. "We are taking this step on a very sad note as they are disrespecting the Chair and the people," he said.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved the motion to suspend the MPs for the remainder of the session for “utter disregard”, raising slogans, and bringing placards to the House.
The House passed the resolution with a voice vote. Following the suspension of 49 MPs, the House was adjourned till 2 pm. On Monday, 33 Lok Sabha MPs and 45 Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended. On December 14, 13 Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP were also suspended.