78 Parliament Members Suspended! On December 18, a total of 78 opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) were suspended from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, bringing the total number of suspended MPs since December 15 to 92. Out of these, 33 MPs were suspended in the Lok Sabha, and 45 were suspended in the Rajya Sabha. The suspensions occurred amid repeated adjournments in both houses, following a security breach in the parliament on December 13.
The security breach involved two individuals jumping from the public gallery into the Lok Sabha hall and releasing smoke canisters. The opposition MPs demanded a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the incident. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla stated that a high-level probe is already investigating the security breach, and some suggestions from opposition MPs have been implemented.
In the Lok Sabha on Monday, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to suspend 30 opposition MPs for misconduct.
Out of the 78 Parliament Members Suspended, The 30 Suspended Lok Sabha MPs are:
- Kalyan Banerjee (TMC),
- A. Raja (DMK),
- Dayanidhi Maran (DMK),
- Aparupa Poddar (TMC),
- Prasun Banerjee (TMC),
- E.T. Mohammed Basheer (IUML),
- G. Selvam (DMK),
- C.N. Annadurai (DMK),
- Adhir Ranjan Choudhary (Congress),
- T. Sumathy (DMK),
- K. Navaskani (IUML),
- K. Veeraswamy (DMK),
- N.K. Premchandran (RSP),
- Saugata Roy (TMC),
- Satabdi Roy (TMC),
- Asit Kumar Mal (TMC),
- Kaushelendra Kumar (JDU),
- Anto Antony (Congress),
- S.S. Palanimanickam (DMK),
- Thirunavukkarasar (Congress),
- Pratima Mondal (TMC),
- Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (TMC),
- K. Muraleedharan (Congress),
- Sunil Kumar Mandal (TMC),
- S. Ramalingam (DMK),
- K. Suresh (Congress),
- Amar Singh (Congress),
- Rajmohan Unnithan (Congress),
- Gaurav Gogoi (Congress),
- T.R. Baalu (DMK).
Additionally, the duration of suspension of three other Congress MPs – K. Jayakumar, Abdul Khaleque, and Vijay Vasanth – will be determined by the Privileges Committee.
In the Rajya Sabha, leader of the house Piyush Goyal moved a motion to suspend 34 members of the opposition for continuous disruption and violation of house rules.
The 34 Suspended Rajya Sabha MPs are:
- Pramod Tiwari (Congress),
- Jairam Ramesh (Congress),
- Amee Yajnik (Congress),
- Naranbhai (Congress),
- Syed Nasir Hussain (Congress),
- Phulo Devi Netam (Congress),
- Shakti Sinh Gohil (Congress),
- K.C. Venugopal (Congress),
- Rajani Patil (Congress),
- Ranjeet Ranjan (Congress),
- Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress),
- Randeep Singh Surjewala (Congress),
- Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC),
- Mohammed Nadimul Haq (TMC),
- Abir Ranjan Biswas (TMC),
- Shantanu Sen (TMC),
- Mausam Noor (TMC),
- Prakash Chik Baraik (TMC),
- Samirul Islam (TMC),
- M. Shanmugam (DMK),
- N.R. Elango,
- Kanimozhi N.V.N. Somu (DMK),
- R. Girirajan (DMK),
- Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD),
- Faiyaz Ahmed (RJD),
- V. Sivadasan (CPI-M),
- Ram Nath Thakur (JDU),
- Aneel Prasad Hegde (JDU),
- Vandana Chavan (NCP),
- Ram Gopal Yadav (SP),
- Javed Ali Khan (SP),
- Mahua Maji (JMM),
- Jose K. Mani (Kerala Congress M),
- Ajit Kumar Bhuyan (Independent).
In addition, eleven other MPs’ suspension was referred to the Privileges Committee by Goyal to determine the duration of their suspension.
These include Jebi Mather Hisham (Congress), L. Hanumanthaiah (Congress), Neeraj Dangi (Congress), Rajmani Patel (Congress), Kumar Ketkar (Congress), G.C. Chandrashekar, Binoy Viswam (CPI), Santosh Kumar (JDU), John Brittas (CPIM), M. Mohammad Abdulla (DMK), A.A. Rahim (CPI-M) to be referred to the committee of privileges.
Including TMC’s Derek O’Brien on December 14, a total of 46 MPs have now been suspended from the Rajya Sabha.
Opposition MPs criticized the Modi government for being autocratic, accusing it of suppressing dissent. They argued that the suspensions would allow the government to pass legislation without opposition. The demands from the opposition include a statement from Shah on the security breach and a discussion in both houses.
Here’s what the Opposition responded on X (Formerly Twitter) regarding the suspension of 92 MPs
Murder of Democracy in India (MODI) at Work, writes Jairam Ramesh
While Shah accused the opposition of politicizing the security breach, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the seriousness of the incident and called for a collective solution. Despite the suspension of opposition MPs, no action has been taken against BJP MP Pratap Simha, who facilitated passes for those involved in the security breach.
