Parliament: 33 Opposition MPs Suspended from LS; Total 47 from Both Houses Since Security Breach

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday suspended 33 Opposition members, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK) and Sougata Ray (TMC), from the House for displaying placards and raising slogans over the Parliament's security breach issue.

This takes the total number of suspended MPs from both Houses – Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha – to 47.

Hitting back at the government, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in an X post: “With an Opposition-Less Parliament, the Modi Govt can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate.”

First, intruders attacked Parliament.
Then Modi Govt attacking Parliament & Democracy

All Democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Govt by suspending 47 MPs.

We have two simple and genuine demands -

1. The Union Home Minister should make a…

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) December 18, 2023

Kharge said only two “simple and genuine” demands were being made for which 47 MPs had to face suspension. He said all that the Opposition MPs were demanding is

“The Union Home Minister should make a statement in both Houses of Parliament on the inexcusable breach in the Parliament security.”

 He said the Prime Minister “can give interviews to a newspaper. Home Minister can giver interviews to TV channels”, questioning why they couldn’t speak in Parliament.

On Monday, the 33 Opposition members were suspended for ‘disrupting’ the Lok Sabha’s proceedings demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue.

While 30 members, including 10 from the DMK, nine from the Trinamool Congress, eight from the Congress and one each from IUML, JD(U) and RSP were suspended for the remainder of the Winter session, three other Congress members were suspended pending a report of the Privileges Committee.

Last week, 13 Opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha and one was suspended from the Rajya Sabha for disrupting the proceedings. The total number of suspended opposition members now stands at 47.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day soon after the suspension of 33 members was announced.

Among those suspended on Monday were Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Amar Singh, Rajamohan Unnithan, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, K Muraleedharan, Anto Antony (all from Congress), Kalyan Banerjee, Aparupa Poddar, Prasun Banerjee, Sougata Ray, Satabdi Ray, Protima Mondal, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Asit Kumar Mal, Sunil Kumar Mondal (all from TMC), T R Baalu, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, T Sumathy, K Navas Kani, Kalanidhi Veerasamy, C N Annadurai, S S Palanimanickam, G Selvam, S Ramalingam (all from DMK), ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML), N K Premachandran (RSP) and Kaushalendra Kumar (JD-U).

Three Congress members -- K Jayakumar, Vijay Vasanth and Abdul Khaleque -- who had climbed on the speaker’s podium and raised slogans, were suspended from the Lok Sabha pending report of the Privileges Committee on their unparliamentary behaviour.

As the Lok Sabha met at 3 p.m, BJP member Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the chair, named the 33 opposition members.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi read out a motion suspending 30 members from the House for the remaining part of the Winter session. Joshi also moved a separate motion referring the conduct of Jayakumar, Vasanth and Khaleque to the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha and suspending them pending submission of the report by the panel.

The Winter session has witnessed uproar and repeated adjournments since the breach in Parliament security by two protesters who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery and opened smoke canisters on December 13, the anniversary of the 2001 terror attack on Parliament.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has ordered a high-level inquiry into the breach in Parliament security and urged members not to politicise the issue.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi made a statement on the issue in the Lok Sabha, but Opposition members have been insisting on a statement from the Home Minister.