92 MPs suspended from Parl; Oppn terms it “murder of democracy”

In a major escalation of tensions between the Opposition and the BJP-led government at the Centre, 78 MPs were suspended from both Houses of Parliament on Monday, taking the total number of suspended MPs in this session to 92 after which Opposition leaders termed it a “murder of democracy.” The reason behind the suspension of Opposition MPs for the rest of the Winter Session was cited as “misconduct” and failure to adhere to the directions of the Chair. But 92 MPs from the Parliament were suspended following a ruckus over the demand by the Opposition of a statement from Union Minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach incident. When the Lok Sabha resumed proceedings in the afternoon, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to suspend 30 opposition MPs for “misconduct” and “utter disregard” to the chair. Three other Congress MPs’ suspension has been referred to the Privileges Committee. The MPs who were suspended in Lok Sabha on Monday for the remainder of the session on Monday include Kalyan Banerjee (TMC), A. Raja (DMK), Dayanidhi Maran (DMK), Aparupa Poddar (TMC), Prasun Banerjee (TMC), E.T. Mohammed Basheer (IUML), G. Selvam (DMK), C.N. Annadurai (DMK), Adhir Ranjan Choudhary (Congress), T. Sumathy (DMK), K. Navaskani (IUML), K. Veeraswamy (DMK), N.K. Premchandran (RSP), Saugata Roy (TMC), Satabdi Roy (TMC), Asit Kumar Mal (TMC).