Parliament LIVE | With 97 Oppn MPs out, LS passes 3 criminal code bills, telecom bill

MPs of the Opposition INDIA bloc will hold a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Thursday (December 21) against the suspension of more than 140 Opposition parliamentarians and stage a “mock Parliament”, sources said.

A meeting will be held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s chamber in the Parliament complex on Wednesday afternoon to finalise the programme.

All suspended MPs will join the protest at Jantar Mantar, sources said.

They will also hold a “mock Parliament”. Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha is likely to be the speaker for the mock proceedings.

More than 140 Opposition MPs have been suspended from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha since last week for disrupting proceedings. Opposition MPs have been demanding a discussion on the Parliament security breach and a statement by Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue.

They have also sought action against the BJP MP who authorised the visitor pass for at least one of the culprits who jumped in the Lok Sabha gallery on December 13. (PTI)

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday suspended two more Opposition MPs for showing placards in the House.

Thomas Chazhikadan of the Kerala Congress (Mani) and AM Ariff of the CPI(M) were suspended for misconduct after a resolution moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi was adopted by the House.

This takes the number of suspended MPs in the Lok Sabha to 97. So far 143 opposition MPs have been suspended from the two Houses of Parliament. (PTI)

Ruling party members on Wednesday participated in the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha while remaining standing to express solidarity with Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. The treasury benches participated in the Question Hour proceedings while standing for about 10 minutes.

Among those seen standing were Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

As soon as the House resumed at noon, Joshi said, “In protest against the action of their party’s former president (Rahul Gandhi), and in your honour, and in honour of the Constitution, we would participate in the Question Hour while remaining standing in silence. We request for your permission.”

“We strongly condemn how Rahul Gandhi insulted you and your constitutional position. To tarnish a particular community and section of society is not right,” he said.

“As far as I have seen, this is the first time they have fallen to this level and there is no end to this. We strongly condemn this. They have been insulting people in constitutional positions,” Joshi said.

The minister said for 20 years they “insulted” the prime minister because he comes from a poor family and belongs to the OBC background. They kept on “insulting” him even after he became the prime minister, he said.

“Then they insulted the President of India who is a tribal. And now they have insulted the Vice President of India, who is a farmer’s son and hails from the Jat community.

“For the first time a farmer’s son and ‘Jat-putra’ has reached this level and they have insulted this post of the Vice-President of India. I want to make it clear that India will not tolerate the insult of the Vice-President and India will not tolerate the insult of the Constitution,” he asserted amid slogan-shouting by members of the treasury benches.

The minister said the President and Lok Sabha Speaker have also condemned the act of insulting the Vice-President.

He said several big people in different fields have condemned this and “we too strongly condemn this insult”.

As members of treasury benches stood in honour of the chair, Opposition members raised slogans demanding that the home minister come to the House and make a statement on the Parliament security breach issue.

After the ruling party members stood for about 10 minutes during Question Hour, the Chairman asked them to resume their seats, saying he was touched by the gesture.

“I am greatly touched by your gesture. I do not represent an individual. I am custodian of an institution and I am accountable to it. Any affront to the institution, the position that I hold, I have to be a protector of it,” he said.

“Your gesture of standing has really touched my heart. I would request you to kindly take your seats and we will proceed with the proceedings of the House. Kindly resume your seats,” Dhankhar said. (PTI)

Advocate and social activist Vineet Jindal has reportedly filed a complaint with the Ethics Committee of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, seeking the expulsion of TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and others involved in the mimicry incident of Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. Banerjee is already under suspension from the House for the Winter session.

In his complaint, Jindal has claimed that the event qualifies as an extreme case of misconduct by members of the House and the Ethics Committee should act upon it, according to news agency ANI.

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)