'Oppn protests a murder of democracy'

The continued protest by MPs of the Congress, Left parties and the Samajwadi Party with  placards and slogan shouting, disrupting proceedings in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, led a visibly anguished  Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to term the mayhem “murder of democracy”.

As the Congress MPs waved placards in front of the Speaker’s podium to block the Lok Sabha TV cameras from taking her shots, Mahajan warned them that the entire nation was witnessing the “irresponsible” behaviour of the Opposition parties. She asked the TV crew to broadcast audio-visuals of the agitating MPs to shame them and to let the nation see their behaviour inside the House. "This is murder of democracy. This is not democracy,” said Mahajan.

“The Lok Sabha TV should air all these visuals. People of the entire country should see how the MPs are behaving in the House,” she added, as Congress MPs Navneet Singh and Deepender Singh waved placards that read: “48 persons died, Speak up Prime Minister” and “Guilty Chief Minister should resign”. 

Congress and Left parties’ MPs trooped to the well of the Lok Sabha soon after the House met on Tuesday and the Speaker announced that she had rejected their notices for adjournment motions. Demanding resignation of Chief Minister of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, for his reported involvement in the Vyapam recruitment scam, the Congress and Left MPs raised slogans demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak on the issue.

The MPs of the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal also joined the protest, demanding that the  recently concluded caste census data should be made public.
The MPs of the Nationalist Congress Party and Trinamool Congress did not join the protestors but stood  on the aisles or near their seats.

The Congress MPs also demanded the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chief Minister of BJP-ruled Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, for reportedly helping tainted former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi get travel documents in the United Kingdom while the Enforcement Directorate back in India was probing violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act by him.

“Please go back to your seats. You are sending a very wrong message to the nation. Merely 40-50 people are trying to usurp the rights of about 440 members. More than 400 members want the Lok Sabha to function and discussions to take place,” she urged the agitating MPs.

The agitating MPs also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking up on the issues and not delivering on his promises to end corruption in governance.

The Speaker conducted the proceedings for almost two hours despite the din and adjourned the House at 1:00 pm for 75 minutes.