Govt-Opp tussle flares up in LS; 8 MPs suspended

The government-opposition face-off in the Lok Sabha intensified on Tuesday as eight protesting MPs were suspended for “unruly behaviour” after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed for the second day from quoting an article that cited an unpublished “memoir” of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict. The seven MPs from the Congress and one from the CPI (M) were suspended for the remainder of the Budget session, which ends on April 2, for trying to climb on the table of the secretary general, tearing papers and hurling them at the Chair. Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, lodging his strong protest over being disallowed from speaking in the House on a matter of national security and terming it a “blot on our democracy”. He also said that it was for the first time in history that LoP was not allowed to speak on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address. In his letter to Birla, Gandhi noted that as convention, including repeated rulings of past Speakers, a member wishing to refer to a document in the House is required to authenticate it and affirm responsibility for its contents, which he did.