'Mockery of democracy': Oppn slams suspensions from Parl

Opposition parties on Monday described the suspension of 92 MPs from Parliament in less than a week as a mockery of democracy”, as they slammed the BJP-led Centre for allegedly violating democratic norms and trying to bulldoze” important legislation through the House without any debate.

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While the Congress alleged an extreme level of dictatorship” by the government, the TMC accused the Centre of trying to suppress the voice of the people. The DMK also criticised the mass suspensions, saying nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Parliament. The Union government, however, defended its actions and accused the Opposition of embarrassing” the country with their conduct in Parliament.

In a move that has no precedence, 78 Opposition MPs were suspended till at least the end of the Winter session earlier in the day after they refused to budge on their demand for a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach last week. While 33 members were suspended from the Lok Sabha, 45 were suspended from the Rajya Sabha.

Monday’s action took the total number of Opposition MPs suspended from both Houses to 92 since last Thursday, when 13 members in the Lower House and one in the Upper House were suspended for similar reasons.

Reacting to the suspensions, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms were thrown into the dustbin by the autocratic” government, which, he said, has shown zero accountability towards Parliament. First, intruders attacked Parliament. Then Modi government attacking Parliament and Democracy. All Democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Government by suspending 47 MPs,” he wrote ina post on X.