SUSPENSION SAGA SULLIES TEMPLE OF DEMOCRACY

THE 2023 winter session will go down in history for various reasons. It started with a member of parliament demanding why their questions of national importance were disallowed during the Question Hour, followed by the expulsion of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha, and then a parliamentary breach by four people who released a coloured gas in the Lok Sabha chamber.

- THAMIZHACHI THANGAPANDIAN

The session ended with the suspension of more than 140 members in the two Houses of parliament over a few days. Somehow all of these incidents are related.

The recent suspensions have ignited yet another debate on our democratic institutions and the values we espouse as a parliamentary democracy. The mass suspension from both the Houses on December 13 was triggered by the serious security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 parliament attack, and members asking for a statement on it. But the suspensions continued till the end of the session.

Security breaches are a serious issue, especially if it concerns the parliament of India. But suspending members en masse? This sounds like a case of fixing a leaky tap with a hammer. We, the members of parliament, are not just raising eyebrows at the events that unfolded-we are raising the demand for accountability for this unprecedented series of events.

While parliamentary suspensions are not new, a mass suspension of such a magnitude has never been witnessed in history. On March 15, 1989, 63 Lok Sabha members were suspended for a week after protesting the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. However, these recent suspensions surpass the previous instances in terms of scale and the potential consequences it had on parliamentary proceedings.