Why Was Adhir Chowdhury Suspended From Lok Sabha?

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was suspended from Lok Sabha for "repeated misconduct" on Thursday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a resolution "that this House having taken the serious note of the gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in utter disregard to the House and authority of Chair resolve that the matter of his misconduct be referred to Committee of Privileges of the House for the further investigation and report to the House and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury be suspended from the service of the House till the Committee submits its report."

Speaking in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi said, "It has become habitual for him (Adhir) and it has become most unfortunate. He is the leader of the Congress party, which is the largest party in the opposition in this House. Despite repeated warnings he has not improved himself."

"Always in his debate he makes these baseless charges, he tries to lower the dignity of the government. There are no facts in his arguments and he never apologises. Today also, we demanded that he apologise. He did the same thing when the home minister was speaking," Joshi said.

Why He Was Suspended?
While addressing the Lok Sabha on Thursday in the midst of a debate concerning the no-confidence motion presented by the Opposition, Chowdhury drew a parallel between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the blind king Dhritarashtra from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He remarked, "Just as when Dhritarashtra was blind, the disrobing of Draupadi occurred, similarly today, blind rulers are seated... There is no difference between Manipur and Hastinapur."

He also likened PM Modi to fugitive Nirav Modi.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that he did not insult the Prime Minister. "I have not insulted PM Modi. Modi ji speaks on everything but on the Manipur issue, he is sitting 'Nirav', which means sitting silent. 'Nirav' means to be silent. My intention was not to insult PM Modi... PM Modi did not feel that he was insulted, his courtiers (darbari) felt so and brought this proposal against me. I came to know that (the matter) has been referred to the privilege committee and I have been suspended," he said.