NEW DELHI, Dec 22
Accusing the Congress of disrupting the Winter Session to divert attention from its loss in the recent Assembly elections, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Friday that the government did not want to suspend Opposition MPs, but some of them asked to be suspended.
Addressing a press conference with Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal, Joshi said: “Hum toh suspend nahin karna chahate the, to be very, very firm.
We requested them like anything… Kuch logon ko humne suspend kiya shuruvat ke din mein, baad mein sab log aake request karna shuru kiye ke ‘hum ko bahar jaana hai, hum ko suspend karo’ kar ke. Yeh Congress party ka level hai.” (We did not want to suspend… After we suspended some members initially, others came with requests saying ‘we want to go outside, suspend us’… This is the level of the Congress.”)
A total of 146 MPs – 100 from Lok Sabha and 46 from Rajya Sabha – were suspended for disrupting proceedings after the Parliament security breach on December 13. Protesting against the breach, the Opposition members demanded a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, followed by a discussion in the House.
Joshi said Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had assured the House that a probe would be conducted into the breach. He said the MP on whose recommendation the passes were issued to the accused, BJP’s Prathap Simha, had also recorded his statement.
He said the Opposition continued to protest and demand a statement by Shah as “they wanted to take revenge for the (poll) defeat — the big loss of the Congress.” Referring to the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh election results, he said “their aim was to divert attention”.
Meghwal too alleged a “conspiracy” by the Congress to disrupt Parliament proceedings as “revenge” for its poll loss. Referring to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement that unemployment was a reason behind the security breach, Joshi said that compared to global and historical trends, unemployment was low in India.
“Rahul Gandhi doesn’t understand what he is saying. Somebody will guide him, somebody will write and give him, and he will read it, that is the problem. In a way, they have supported the people who don’t believe in the Constitution of India.
Earlier, they had supported the tukde-tukde gang,” Joshi said.
