Speaker suspends six Congress MPs
LYNCHING ISSUE Congress claims Speaker adjourned motion for debate on cow vigilantes
The Lok Sabha Speaker suspended six Congress parliamentarians on Monday for unruly behaviour during opposition protests in the House over growing cow vigilantism and alleged targeting of minorities and Dalits in the country.
NEW DELHI : The Lok Sabha Speaker suspended six Congress parliamentarians on Monday for unruly behaviour during opposition protests in the House over growing cow vigilantism and alleged targeting of minorities and Dalits in the country.
Parliament’s monsoon session proceedings after the weekend break were marred by disruptions as opposition lawmakers protested in the well of the Lower House and threw shredded papers at Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and the secretary general’s tables.
The House was adjourned thereafter and when it resumed at 2pm, Mahajan announced that Congress lawmakers Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhiranjan Chowdhary, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and MK Raghavan are suspended for five days.
She said the members had “persistently and wilfully” disrupted the House by tearing and throwing papers towards the chair, causing grave disorder.
The Congress later decided that all its MPs will stage a protest in Parliament on Tuesday against the suspensions.
On Monday, chaos began minutes after the House met in the morning as opposition members demanded a discussion on a string of lynching by self-styled cow protection groups.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge moved an adjournment motion to discuss the attacks. But Mahajan declined to suspend the question hour.
At this, Congress and Trinamool Congress lawmakers rushed to the well and shouted slogans against the government.
The Speaker warned the MPs repeatedly to maintain decorum, but the protests grew as Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) members joined the Congress MPs.
“Minorities, Dalits and women are being targeted in the name of cow slaughter. The government has failed to control these barbaric events,” Kharge said.
He said the matter needs to be discussed in the House urgently and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh should be present. He also recalled Modi’s warnings to cow vigilantes.
“The PM has said thrice that gau rakshaks are goondas (thugs) and his government will take action. But no action has been taken,” Kharge said.
Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar tried to pacify the opposition leaders, saying the government “could discuss the issue in the coming days” if the business advisory committee decides. But the protesters didn’t relent, prompting Kumar to ask the Speaker to take strong action.
Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said he had given three notices for a discussion on the topic, but those were not accepted.
The din escalated as ruling BJP members tried to outshout the Congress MPs.
BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi and Nishikant Dubey attempted to corner the Congress over the Bofors kickback scandal, demanding reinvestigation into the Swedish artillery gun deal when former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was in power.