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Murder of democracy, says Sonia Gandhi as she leads protest against suspension of lawmakers
Highlights
Led by Sonia Gandhi, Congress MPs sat on a dharna inside Parliament House complex on Tuesday in protest against suspension of its 25 members from Lok Sabha, as the party asserted there will be no let up in its demand for resignation of BJP leaders even if all its members are \"thrown\" out of Parliament.
Led by Sonia Gandhi, Congress MPs sat on a dharna inside Parliament House complex on Tuesday in protest against suspension of its 25 members from Lok Sabha, as the party asserted there will be no let up in its demand for resignation of BJP leaders even if all its members are "thrown" out of Parliament.
The Congress President denounced Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision as "murder of democracy" while party vice president Rahul gandhi said the main opposition party will continue to seek the resignation of Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and BJP chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
"It is government’s duty to run the Parliament. Suspension of our MPs is anti-democratic. Democracy is being murdered," said Sonia, as she raised slogans along with top party leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, A K Antony and Anand Sharma against the Speaker's decision. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also present.
"We will not budge from our stand and there will be no let up in out pressure (on government) as far as issues of corruption, Sushma Swaraj and Vyapam are concerned," Rahul told reporters.
Hitting out at the government, Rahul said it is not the Congress Party that is asking for resignations, it is the people of the country who are asking for resignations.
"Vyapam scam has destroyed future of 1000s in MP. There is clear evidence that Sushmaji has broken the law. Clear evidence that Rajasthan CM (Vasundhara Raje) directly involved financially with Lalit Modi," he added.
"Down with Narendra Modi. We want justice. Shame on you dictator," were the slogans shouted by Congress members who sat on a dharna near the Mahatma gandhi statue. The members wore black arm bands.
Leaders from the other opposition parties like SP and RJD also joined the Congress MPs in their protest.The decision by Lok Sabha Speaker is "unlawful", SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said, as he asked her to reconsider the suspensions.
Congress members also launched a vociferous protest in Rajya Sabha against the government's "dictatorial" attitude, forcing its adjournment for almost an hour soon after it assembled for the day.
Over two dozen members of the Congress, mostly wearing black arm bands and carrying placards, rushed to the Well of the House raising anti-government slogans as soon as the House met. One of them also waved a black cloth but was sternly asked not to do so by Deputy Chairman P J Kurien.
'Modi teri taanashahi nahi chalegi' (Prime Minister, your dictatorial attitude won't be allowed), 'Chuppi todo, Modi ji' (Break your silence, Modi ji) and 'We want justice' were among the slogans the Congress members shouted.
The Congress members also raised their demands relating to the Vyapam and Lalit Modi issues.
Among those seen in the Well of the House were Congress MPs like Arvind Gowda, Madhusudan Mistry, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Pramod Tewari, Raj Babbar, former ministers Renuka Chaudhary, Jairam Ramesh and Kumari Selja.
Kurien sought to bring some order chiding the members for the "height of indiscipline". However, as the opposition members were not in a mood to relent, Kurien adjourned the House till noon within a few minutes after it had assembled.
When the House reassembled at noon, the commotion continued to prevail with Congress members raising slogans against the government.
"We want justice, jhoote waade bandh karo (stop false promises)" the members shouted, forcing Chairman Hamid Ansari to adjourn the Rajya Sabha till 2 pm within ten minutes after it met.
No question could be taken up, despite pleas from the Chair to allow the Question Hour to run smoothly.
In an unprecedented move, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days for repeatedly disrupting the proceedings of the House.
The decision united the Opposition benches as nine Opposition parties, showing solidarity with the suspended Congress MPs, decided to boycott the Lok Sabha for the next five days. The Congress and other Opposition parties plan to intensify attacks on the NDA in the next few days and may raise issues like the “no work, no pay” proposal that is apparently being considered by the government against protesting MPs.
The nine Opposition parties planning to boycott the House are Trinamool Congress, NCP, CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Muslim League, RJD, JD(U) and AAP.
Mahajan took this major step after she “named” the MPs, who were present in the Well of the House and were repeatedly shouting slogans against the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Contending that the MPs were “persistently and wilfully obstructing the House”, the Speaker invoked Rule 374(A), which provides for the automatic suspension of a member for five days. The Congress has 44 members in the Lok Sabha.
The previous Lok Sabha had seen then Speaker Meira Kumar suspend 16 members from Telangana in February last year under the same rule. Significantly, the Speaker’s action Monday was soon after an all-party meeting failed to end the Parliament logjam.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who was in the House along with Rahul Gandhi when the Speaker suspended her party’s MPs, described it as a “black day for democracy”.
The Speaker, after several warnings, “named” (identifying for action) 25 Congress members who were in the Well demanding the resignation of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje over the Lalit Modi row and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Vyapam scam.
Mahajan adjourned the House for the day immediately after suspending the Congress MPs. However, a number of Congress members staged a sit-in in the House.
A visibly angry Sonia Gandhi was seen animatedly talking about this development with her MPs as well as with Left MPs. She and Rahul Gandhi did not leave the House for some time. Congress LS leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the Narendra Modi government was implementing the “Gujarat model” by suspending Opposition members and then running the House in a one-sided manner.
Mahajan later said she had taken the decision only to ensure that the House runs properly. The Speaker’s action came after several warnings and despite pleas made by TMC leader Sudip Bandhyopadhyay and CPI(M) leader P. Karunakaran that it would only aggravate the situation.
The suspended members included B.N. Chandrappa, Santok Singh Chaudhary, A.H.K. Choudhury, Sushmita Dev, Ninog Ering, R. Dhruvanarayana, Gaurav Gogoi, G. Sukender Reddy, Deepender Hooda, S. Kodikunnil, S.P. Muddahanumegowda, Abhijit Mukherjee, Mullappally Ramachandran, K.H. Munniyappa, B.V. Nayak, Vincent Pala, M.K. Raghavan, Ranjeet Ranjan, C.L. Ruala, T. Sahu, Rajee Satav, Ravneet Singh, K. Suresh, K.C. Venugopal and T. Meinya.
Angry over the Speaker’s move, Mrs Gandhi then asked Mr Kharge to lodge a protest. Objecting to the action, Mr Kharge said: “Our demand is that the ministers resign. Then everything will be peaceful.”
Amid bedlam, home minister Rajnath Singh said there was no FIR, no court observation and no prima facie case against Ms Swaraj as well as the two chief ministers and hence there was “no justification” for them to resign.
The CVC too has not pointed out any wrongdoing, he said, adding: “We have not shied away from discussion and we are ready for it.” His response came as Mr Kharge opposed the Speaker’s move to name MPs from his party for disrupting the proceedings.
The home minister’s comments were greeted with the thumping of benches by BJP MPs, who also became vocal and shouts of “throw them out” could be heard from the treasury benches.
Before naming them, the Speaker repeatedly told the Congress members not to display placards and to return to their seats. “Don’t force me to take stringent action... You cannot say they disrupted proceedings so we will also do the same... We cannot degrade ourselves further,” Ms Mahajan said.
Mr Bandhopadhyay and Mr Karunakaran urged the Speaker not to suspend the members, saying the warring parties should be given a change to resolve the issue as they are “experienced politicians”.
Mr Karunakaran recalled that the BJP had stalled the Lok Sabha as an Opposition party for one month and such an action in the present Lok Sabha could be avoided. The Speaker said if they were ready to give a guarantee for the Congress members, she could do a rethink. Some Left party members were also in the Well raising slogans against the government, but they did not display any placards.
Earlier in the day, the all-party meeting convened by the BJP leadership failed to break the nearly fortnight-long deadlock in Parliament, with the Congress unrelenting on its demand for the resignations of Ms Swaraj and the two BJP chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and the government firmly rejecting it.
A number of regional parties including TMC and Biju Janata Dal voiced anguish over the continued disruption of the two Houses, and urged the two national parties to resolve the matter to ensure that other issues are discussed in Parliament. The JD(U) and Left parties, however, had supported the Congress at the meeting.
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