NEW DELHI: Following walkouts from both the Houses, Opposition leaders staged a protest at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament premises on Tuesday over the suspension of 12 MPs.
Earlier, Opposition MPs staged walkouts from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha after Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected revocation of the suspension of 12 Opposition MPs. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said they staged a walkout from the Lower House to show support to the 12 MPs who have been suspended and termed the suspension as a “retrospective effect”.
“We have staged a walkout from Lok Sabha to support the 12 Opposition members of Rajya Sabha who have been suspended. The action of suspension from the current winter session points at a ‘retrospective effect’. Why should an apology be issued?” Chowdhury said while speaking to media persons. He further alleged that the government is using suspension as a “threat” to silence the Opposition. As many as 12 MPs from the opposition parties were suspended from Parliament’s winter session for allegedly creating ruckus on the last day of the Monsoon Session.
The suspension came after Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Monday wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who is the Vice President, for shocking violence on the last day of the Monsoon Session. The suspended MPs include six from Congress, two each from TMC and Shiv Sena and one each from CPM and CPI. The action has been taken against them for the ‘indiscipline’ in the monsoon session of the House.
The suspended MPs are Elamaram Kareem (CPM), Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, R Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress, Binoy Viswam of CPI, Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai of Shiv Sena.
