6 MPs from Punjab among 49 more parliamentarians suspended from Lok Sabha

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, December 19  

Amid protests from opposition MPs seeking answers to the security breach in Parliament, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday suspended 49 more MPs for 'disrupting' the proceedings of the House.

The suspension shall be for the remainder of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.

With this, a total of 82 MPs have been suspended from Lok Sabha since December 14, the day after the security of Parliament was breached.

Among the suspended are six MPs from Punjab --Gurjit Aujla, Manish Tewari, Ravneet Bittu, Jasbir Gill, Mohd Sadiq and Sushil Kumar Rinku. The first five are from Congress and Rinku is from AAP.

Veteran Farooq Abdullah from J&K is among those suspended.

The suspension was carried out after the House had been adjourned twice since morning. 

Chair Rajendra Aggarwal first read out the names of those, he said, were disrupting the functioning of the House. The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs moved the resolution seeking suspension which was passed by a voice vote.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi read out the rules under which these MPs have been suspended.

Acrimonious scenes continued in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday with Speaker Om Birla warning members who had stormed the Well holding placards in protest. Some of these placards had images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Birla spoke at the start of Question Hour at 11 am when he told placard-holding protesting MPs, “This is last warning to you to return to your seats and not hold placards in the House.” He adjourned the House to meet again at noon.

Prahlad Joshi sought action against those who had brought pictures of Modi as part of the protest. “They have marked the image of the PM and that is an insult…I request action be taken against those who have done this.”

Joshi questioned the opposition saying they had already lost the recent elections and people of this country had accepted the leadership of PM Modi.

The Speaker reminded the protestors that it was the collective decision of not bringing placards in the House when the new Parliament building was inaugurated.

“You formed the rules, it’s your own decision that you are violating,” Birla said, adding that the House could not function when placards are being shown.

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