Cong protests MPs’ suspension, LS adjourned amid commotion
UP IN ARMS MPs demand discussion on lynchings, accuse govt of dictatorial attitude
Congress lawmakers led by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday protested in Parliament House against the suspension of their six party colleagues. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had suspended the MPs for creating ruckus in the House on Monday.
Congress MPs held a meeting in the party office in Parliament on Tuesday morning before coming out to register their protest against the Monday’s suspensions and demanded a discussion on a string of lynching by selfstyled cow protection groups.
The Congress MPs raised slogans against the government accusing it of a dictatorial attitude. The lawmakers suspended on Monday were among those who had protested in the well of the Lower House and flung torn papers at the speaker and the secretary general’s tables.
Mahajan had announced that Congress lawmakers Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhiranjan Chowdhary, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and MK Raghavan were suspended for five days. She said the members had “persist- ently and wilfully” disrupted the House by tearing and throwing papers towards the chair, causing grave disorder.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday again moved an adjournment motion to discuss the attacks.
Mahajan declined to suspend the question hour and said the rules did not provide for it. “They (the opposition) do not want the House to run,” she said, as Kharge kept reading from his motion.
Mahajan adjourned the House till 3 pm amid the commotion and announced it would allow MPs and ministers to attend the swearing in ceremony of Ram Nath Kovind as India’s 14th President.
Kharge’s motion was also rejected on Monday.
“Minorities, Dalits and women are being targeted in the name of cow slaughter. The government has failed to control these barbaric events,” he had said in the House.