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Din in LS: six Congress MPs suspended

Last Updated 24 July 2017, 20:07 IST
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspended six MPs of the Opposition Congress, after they tore official papers and hurled them on the podium and Secretary-General’s desk.

The Speaker suspended MPs Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and M K Raghavan, after they joined other Opposition members in the well of the House to protest against growing incidents of lynching of people by cow vigilantes in several states across the country. The Speaker named the six Congress MPs and said that they had torn official papers and thrown them at her podium. She suspended them for five consecutive sittings of the House.

“Gaurav Gogoi snatched papers from the table and waved them at the Chair. K Suresh snatched papers from the table, tore them up and threw them towards the Chair. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and M K Raghavan tore papers and threw them towards the Chair,” Sumitra said in her order. “The conduct of the members is highly unbecoming and in abuse of the rules of the House.”

“It seeks to undermine the dignity of the House. These members were persistently and wilfully obstructing the business of the House and have caused grave disorder,” said the Speaker, adding that they stood automatically suspended  under the provisions of Rule 374A of the procedure for conducting business.

The Congress will hold a demonstration in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Complex on Tuesday to protest against the suspensions.

The Lok Sabha witnessed ruckus as soon as it met for the day. The MPs of the Congress, Trinamool Congress and other Opposition parties trooped into the Well of the House, demanding adjournment of the Question Hour and immediate discussion on the lynching incidents by cow vigilantes. The Speaker said she would allow them to speak after the Question Hour.

Let people see
The Opposition MPs, however, did not relent and continued to raise slogans against the BJP-led government. They picked up official papers from the table of the reporters and tore them up. They then hurled the bits of papers at the podium of the Speaker and at the desk of the secretary general.

“The entire country should watch this... Show it, let people watch,” said the Speaker, as her repeated pleas to the Opposition MPs to return to their seats fell on deaf ears. The treasury benchers protested against the behaviour of the Opposition members.

The Speaker announced the suspensions when the House met post-lunch. She asked the suspended MPs to leave the House. As the ruckus continued even after the House reassembled, Deputy Speaker
M Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day.

“Coming to the well of the House and creating ruckus are acts of indiscipline. Tearing up official papers and throwing them at the Chair four times is even worse,” the Lok Sabha Speaker told journalists later.

‘Harsh, inappropriate’
“It is not appropriate to suspend six of our members when the (new) President is being welcomed and his oath-taking ceremony is scheduled to take place (on Tuesday),” Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said. He said he was not supporting the MPs’ act of tearing up papers, but felt the punishment was harsh and inappropriate.
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(Published 24 July 2017, 10:01 IST)

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