The government-opposition faceoff 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
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NEW DELHI — The government-opposition faceoff 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for "unruly behaviour" after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed for the second day from quoting an article that cited an unpublished "memoir" of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict.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.
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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.
Congress members, led by Gandhi, also held a protest outside the Parliament building against the suspension.
The suspended members are Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Hibi Eden, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Prashant Padole and Dean Kuriakose (all Congress) and S Ventakesan (CPI-M).
On Monday, the House was adjourned amid uproar after Gandhi's attempts to cite the article based on excerpts from Naravane's unpublished book on India-China conflict of 2020 were opposed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and others, and were also disallowed by the Speaker.
As soon as Gandhi was asked to speak on the Motion of Thanks on Tuesday, he cited the Speaker's ruling of Monday and authenticated the copy of the article. "I have authenticated it," he said.
To authenticate a document, a member has to submit a signed copy of it, affirming that it is correct to the best of his knowledge.
Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the Chair, asked him to table it and said, "We will examine it and get back".
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Speaker passed a ruling on the matter and after that Gandhi should not raise the issue repeatedly.
However, with Gandhi insisting on raising the matter, Tenneti moved on to other Speakers and asked Harish Balayogi of the TDP, an NDA constituent, to give his speech on the President's address after three opposition MPs refused to speak, showing solidarity with Gandhi.
As Balayogi spoke, opposition MPs raised slogans and the ruckus continued in the House, prompting the chair to adjourn it till 3 PM.
When the House met at 3 pm following multiple adjournments, Dilip Saikia, who was in the Chair, named the eight Congress members.
Subsequently, Rijiju read out a resolution seeking suspension of the eight members for the remaining period of the Budget session.
Moving the resolution, Rijiju said the members acted in utter disregard of the House and the authority of the Chair. They also tore papers and threw them at the Chair and were named by the Chair for their behaviour, the minister added.
The House passed the resolution by a voice vote, following which the proceedings were adjourned for the day amid uproar.
Besides the row over Gandhi seeking to quote from the article that cited Naravane's "memoir", the House also saw noisy protests from opposition members on the American President Donald Trump announcing the India-US trade deal and the alleged demolition drive at the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, leading to adjournments.
Reacting to his suspension, Congress MP Tagore said, "This is an attack on the democracy of India, and we all know that they do not want the Leader of the Opposition to speak."
Another MP, Hibi Eden, said Gandhi was not allowed to speak in the House, and that is why "we raised slogans and got onto the dais, and that is when we got suspended".
Aujla, who was also suspended, slammed the BJP, saying "they are disciples of Godse".
Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was presiding over the House, said one member addressed the Chair as "yaar" and at that moment he took a stand and questioned the MP.
"Another member standing next to him questioned what was objectionable about saying ‘yaar’, which itself was inappropriate and should not have happened. Subsequently, they came down to the Table of the House and threw papers. These actions are objectionable," he said.
Suspended MP Krishna Kumar Chamala said, "We were suspended from Parliament for one reason: questioning the BJP and its governance."
"Over the past two years, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has often been disturbed by BJP MPs while speaking the facts. Even today, as he spoke on the President’s Address, they tried to distract him to hide the truth from the people.
"This disruption is planned, with speakers sent specifically to distract him and prevent the failures of the BJP from being exposed," he alleged.