Travesty of parliamentary democracy: Tharoor

Slamming the government over the suspension of over 140 MPs, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday claimed that a “dubious record” had been created, as in no country so many lawmakers had been suspended together and alleged that our entire parliamentary democracy has been “betrayed and reduced to a travesty”.

Speaking with reporters after participating in the Opposition protest over the suspension of MPs, Tharoor, who was himself suspended on Tuesday, said that with the suspension of so many opposition MPs, the history of parliamentary democracy has been “besmirched” in our country.

What has been seen in the country in the last few days is a “travesty of parliamentary democracy”, he said.

“I did a bit of research; never in the entire history of Parliamentary democracy has any Parliament in any country in the world ever suspended or expelled 150 people. That is the dubious record being set in our Parliament this week,” he said.

Everyone understands that the basic principle of parliamentary democracy is the accountability of the council of ministers to Parliament, Tharoor said.

“When Parliament is in session, on anything that happens, the government’s duty is to come to Parliament and discuss it with them before going out,” he said.

“When the opposition called for a discussion on the security breach and requested that the home minister should come and speak to Parliament, as you all know, the home minister did not come, he was giving statements outside to the media, he was giving press interviews, but he was not prepared to speak inside Parliament. This is why the opposition protested and I must say that the reaction has been disproportionate to the actual offence of protesting,” Tharoor asserted.

The protest was for a very democratic parliamentary reason which is to have the home minister come and initiate a discussion, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

As many as 49 more opposition lawmakers were suspended from Lok Sabha on Tuesday for unruly behaviour, taking the total number of MPs facing action in both Houses of Parliament to 141 and prompting the INDIA coalition to announce nationwide anti-government protests on Friday. (PTI)