A day after six Congress lawmakers were suspended by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for five days, the Congress-led Opposition on Tuesday protested by the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Parliament House.
The noisy protests continued in Lok Sabha, after which the Speaker adjourned the House till 3 pm.
“You don’t want the House to function as it is, I am adjourning the House to allow members and Ministers participate in the oath-taking of the 14th President and other ceremonies...,” Mahajan said.
When the House reassembled at 3 pm, the Opposition continued its protests demanding that the suspension of the Congress MPs be revoked, after which the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.
In the morning, leaders from the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, Left parties, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United) shouted slogans against the Narendra Modi government over the suspension of the MPs, who threw torn paper near the Chair while were demanding a discussion on lynching of Dalits and Muslims.
An upset Mahajan said she was “hurt” by the “unruly behaviour” and disruption of proceedings when she had agreed to allot time for a discussion on the issues.
Mahajan bowed to BJP During Tuesday’s protest, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, alleged that the Speaker had “acted under pressure from the ruling BJP”. However, he told reporters that while “we can't comment on the Speaker, at the same time we want justice...When Meira Kumar was Speaker, the Opposition disrupted the House many times but she never lost her cool. She handled the work with patience.”
The protesting Opposition members, including Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, demanded that the Speaker reconsider the suspension of the six MPs: Gaurav Gogoi, Sushmita Dev, Ranjeet Ranjan, Adhir Ranjan Choudhry, K Suresh and MK Raghavan.