Parliament cleared of opposition, suspended MPs protest outside the House

Opposition MPs held a protest at the Makar Dwar of the new Parliament building today, 19 December, over the suspension of several MPs.

They also held mock House proceedings there, suggesting the business of Parliament was being impeded inside and thus must be held outside.

Today, 49 more opposition MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha, bringing the total number of those suspended to 141 across both houses.

It is worth nothing here that out of a full house of 543, the Lok Sabha has 303 members from the ruling BJP alone. The remainder after 92 MPs were suspended (counting from 14 December) includes unofficial allies of the BJP such as the Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress Party as well. This implies that true dissenting voices that remain are few—and the BJP can push through any legislation relatively unimpeded, likely without much in the way of debate as well in the circumstances.

After this latest batch of suspensions, several members of opposition parties—including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi—gathered to protest outside Parliament, by the Gandhi statue on the premises. The gathered MPs and party leaders raised slogans against home minister Amit Shah and demanded his response on the Parliament security breach.

Kalyan Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress mimicked the presiding officers in an impromptu skit depicting the proceedings of the House, even as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that it was a breach and a violation of the privilege of Parliament if a minister must make a statement outside when the House is in session.

Kharge also asked why the home minister refused to make a statement in the House on the security breach issue.

“Modi–Shah have insulted the dignity of the House. Despite serious security lapses, they do not come to Parliament and give any statement. I am very sad that for the first time in history, so many MPs have been suspended. This is like destroying democracy and is a deep insult to the dignity of the House,” wrote Kharge in a post on X.

After the suspensions on Monday, 18 December, the total number of MPs suspended from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha stood at 93, of which 92 had been suspended only since Thursday, 14 December. Before that, AAP member Sanjay Singh alone had been suspended as a Rajya Sabha member on 24 July.

The INDIA (Indian Nationalist Democratic Inclusive Alliance) bloc has lost almost half its strength in the Rajya Sabha and one-third of its members in the Lok Sabha, with 78 minister in all suspended yesterday (18 December) for demanding a response from union home minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach.

After the Lok Sabha assembled at 11 a.m., Speaker Om Birla had briefly addressed the security breach: “It is unfortunate that some [parties] are doing politics on this incident. This is not an incident for politicking.”

While the Speaker made the remarks, the Opposition members continued their protest. They raised slogans of “Pradhan Mantri jawab do, jawab do”, seeking a statement from the prime minister himself.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi urged the Opposition members to stand down and allow the House to continue to function. “This is the last session of the 17th Lok Sabha… Discussions should take place,” he said.

Their refusal led to the fresh batch of suspensions.

Typographic errors in the figures in this article were corrected on 20 December 2023