Rajya Sabha Suspends 34, Lok Sabha Expels 33 Members Of Parliament

Minutes after the Lok Sabha expelled 33 members, Rajya Sabha speaker Jagdeep Dhankhad suspended 34 members of the Opposition for creating rucks and bringing placards into the house. The speaker took action against Congress' Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala, and KC Venugopal. Taking their names, Jagdeep Dhankhar announced their suspension for the remainder of the Winter Session of the Parliament.

The Lok Sabha on Monday suspended 33 opposition members, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T R Baalu, and Sougata Ray, from the House for displaying placards and raising slogans over the Parliament's security breach issue.

The opposition members disrupted the House's proceedings demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue. While 30 members, including 10 from the DMK, nine from the Trinamool Congress, eight from the Congress, and one each from IUML, JD(U), and RSP were suspended for the remainder of the Winter session, three other Congress members were suspended pending a report of the Privileges Committee.

Last week, 13 opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha and one was suspended from the Rajya Sabha for disrupting the proceedings. The total number of suspended opposition members now stands at 47.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day soon after the suspension of 33 members was announced. Among those suspended on Monday were Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Amar Singh, Rajamohan Unnithan, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, K Muraleedharan, Anto Antony (all from Congress), Kalyan Banerjee, Aparupa Poddar, Prasun Banerjee, Sougata Ray, Satabdi Ray, Protima Mondal, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Asit Kumar Mal, Sunil Kumar Mondal (all from TMC), T R Baalu, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, T Sumathy, K Navas Kani, Kalanidhi Veerasamy, C N Annadurai, S S Palanimanickam, G Selvam, S Ramalingam (all from DMK), ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML), N K Premachandran (RSP) and Kaushalendra Kumar (JD-U). Three Congress members -- K Jayakumar, Vijay Vasanth and Abdul Khaleque -- who had climbed on the speaker's podium and raised slogans, were suspended from the Lok Sabha pending report of the Privileges Committee on their unparliamentary behaviour. As the Lok Sabha met at 3 pm, BJP member Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the chair, named the 33 opposition members.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi read out a motion suspending 30 members from the House for the remaining part of the Winter session. Joshi also moved a separate motion referring the conduct of Jayakumar, Vasanth and Khaleque to the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha and suspending them pending submission of the report by the panel. The Winter session has witnessed uproar and repeated adjournments since the breach in Parliament security by two protesters who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery and opened smoke canisters on December 13, the anniversary of the 2001 terror attack on Parliament.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has ordered a high-level inquiry into the breach in Parliament security and urged members not to politicise the issue. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi made a statement on the issue in the Lok Sabha, but opposition members have been insisting on a statement from the Home Minister.