Oppn protests suspension of Cong MPs, allows Kovind’s swearing-in
Opposition parties on Tuesday protested at Mahatma Gandhi's statue in the Parliament House against suspension of six Congress MPs for throwing paper missiles at the Speaker on Monday while taking no action against BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who videographed their act forbidden under the rules.
They, however, wound up the protest just after 20 minutes so as not to affect the swearing-in of new President Ram Nath Kovind in the Central Hall shortly after noon. Going against the decision to boycott the two Houses, they turned up.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, however, adjourned the House up to 3 pm, citing the President''s swearing-in when Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge insisted on adjourning the question hour to take up the lynching issue. She ruled that there is no provision to adjourn the question hour.
The Rajya Sabha functioned for half an hour before it was adjourned till 2 pm in view of the President's oath-taking ceremony.
Leaders of the Congress, Left, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal(U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal joined the protest and raised slogans against the Modi government for lynching of innocent Dalits and Muslims by the cow protection vigilantes.
Six Congress MPs, who were part of the ruckus in the Lok Sabha for 90 minutes, threw some papers at the Speaker's dais and others flung in the air, attracting the Speaker's decision to name and suspend them from the House for five days.
Those suspended are: Gaurav Gogoi, Sushmita Dev, Ranjeet Ranjan, Adhir Ranjan Choudhry, K Suresh and MK Raghavan. The Opposition leaders urged the Speaker to reconsider their suspensions.
Those who joined the protest included Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav, CPI's D Raja, NCP's Supriya Sule and TMC leaders, including Kalyan Banerjee and Derek O'Brien.
The six suspended MPs were also present on the occasion.