Parliament security breach: Past cases of protests by visitors

In most of the cases, the offenders were let off either with a warning or with a simple imprisonment for a day or till the conclusion of the session when the incident happened. It remains to be seen what position the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the Leader of the House will take.

New Delhi: In its 75 years of existence, the Indian Parliament had witnessed a few episodes of protests and sloganeering by outsiders in the visitor’s gallery, but there was a lone case of someone jumping into the Lok Sabha more than 25 years ago.

A senior Parliament official told DH that in the late 1990s, a protester hopped into the Lok Sabha chamber with a demand for a separate Uttarakhand state. He was captured by the Watch and Ward staff and handed over to the police.

Barring one such case more than 25 years ago, nobody recollected any other instance of anyone jumping into the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha chamber from the viewing gallery.

In November, 2016, a man from Madhya Pradesh made an attempt to jump into the Lok Sabha, but he was quickly overpowered by the security staff, who whisked him away. His identity was later disclosed in the House by then Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The Rajya Sabha too witnessed several such cases in the past. On March 18, 1982, when 14 persons shouted slogans from the visitors’ gallery, they were taken into custody. The House passed a motion sentencing them for simple imprisonment for a week, according to publicly available Parliamentary records.

A few days later on March 23, a lady visitor was caught while shouting slogans from the gallery but she was let off with a warning because she was in a state of mental distress.

On November 21, 1983, a visitor from Balia district of Uttar Pradesh shouted slogans and threw a chappal on the floor. The House resolved to sentence him to simple imprisonment till the conclusion of the session.

The Upper House has the record of one such case way back in 1967.

In most of the cases, the offenders were let off either with a warning or with a simple imprisonment for a day or till the conclusion of the session when the incident happened. It remains to be seen what position the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the Leader of the House and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla take this time.

A big difference from the past cases, however, is the use of canisters to release coloured smoke inside the chamber, reminding many about the infamous pepper-spray episode when members used canisters in the Lok Sabha resulting in hospitalisation of three MPs following a ruckus over introduction of the Telangana bill