NEW DELHI: The size of the placards carried by the Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha targeting the Modi government on Monday grew four times in size than the ones they have been aggressively displaying since the Monsoon session began in July, though such gimmicks did not help prevent action against them in the House.
As Parliament entered its ninth ‘working’ day — halfway through the 18-sitting session — without transacting any business and the all-party meeting failing to resolve the deadlock, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, miffed at the continued disturbance by the Congress MPs, took the “stringent action” she had been threatening and suspended 25 of the 44 Congress MPs from the House for five working days.
The third week of the session began with the hope of resumption, as the government made an offer to the Opposition saying the Prime Minister would intervene in the debate. The Speaker conducted the proceedings amidst the din, with the Congress MPs, along those from the TRS, who are demanding a Telangana High Court, creating a ruckus. During the post-lunch session, Mahajan entered the House as deputy speaker Thambidurai was holding the proceedings.
Distressed at the continued disturbance and her appeals to Congress MPs to return to their seats proving futile, a visibly agitated Mahajan named 25 MPs present, almost all of who have been shouting slogans since the session began on July 21. Majahan read the list three times, before citing rule number 374A to suspend B N Chandrappa, Santokh Singh Chaudhary, A H Khan Chowdhury, Sushmita Dev, R Dhruvanarayana, Ninong Ering, Gaurav Gogoi, Gutha Sukender Reddy, Deepender Singh Hooda, Kodikunnil Suresh, Dr Thokchom Meinya, S P Muddahanume Gowda, Abhijit Mukherjee, Mullappally Ramchandran, K H Muniyappa, B V Naik, Vincent H Pala, M K Raghavan, Ranjeet Ranjan, C L Ruala, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Rajeev Satav, Ravneet Singh, D K Suresh and K C Venugopal.
A black day for democracy: Sonia
Sonia Gandhi on Monday launched a blistering attack on the government rejecting the offer of PM’s intervention in the Lalitgate and Vyapam issues. On the suspension of Congress MPs, she said it was a ‘black day for Indian democracy’.