NEW DELHI: A day after the security breach in Parliament, as many as 13 MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha and one from the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of the Winter Session for ‘unruly conduct’ and allegedly disrupting proceedings.
As the Opposition upped the ante on suspensions, the government faced some awkward moments after DMK’s S R Parthiban’s name was wrongly included in the original suspension list of 14 MPs from the Lok Sabha. Later, his suspension was revoked after DMK members pointed out he was not present in the House.
Slamming the government, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned why no action was taken againt Pratap Simha, the BJP MP who issued passes to the intruders. “What happened yesterday in the Lok Sabha was deeply worrying. What happened today in the Lok Sabha is totally bizarre,” Ramesh said.
Of the suspended MPs from LS, nine are from the Congress (T N Prathapan, Hibi Eden, Jothimani, Ramya Haridas, Dean Kuriakose, V K Sreekandan, Benny Behanan, Mohammad Jawed, and Manickam Tagore); two are from CPM ( P R Natarajan and S Venkatesan); one from CPI (K Subbarayan); and one DMK — Kanimozhi. TMC’s Derek O’Brien was suspended from the Rajya Sabha.
Mistaken identity
Hours after suspending DMK’s Member of Parliament S R Parthiban, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla revoked the suspension after the government clarified that that it was a case of mistaken identity as the member was not present in the House when others disrupted the proceedings