Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi and other MPs protest at Makar Dwar of the Parliament, against the suspension of 8 MPs from Lok Sabha (ANI photo)
NEW DELHI: Eight opposition MPs of the Congress and the CPI-M were suspended from the Lok Sabha for the rest of the Budget Session on Tuesday for “unruly behaviour”. MPs mounted the table and hurled papers at the Chair after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed for the second day from speaking on former Army chief General Naravane’s purported revelations on Chinese aggression in his unpublished book.In a protest letter to Speaker Om Birla, Rahul said it was the first time the LOP was not allowed to speak on the President’s joint address, and it is a blot on democracy.The suspensions and bedlam have put a question mark on proceedings for Wednesday, when PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address. Govt sources said the PM’s reply will go on as planned.Attempt to prevent me from speaking on issues of national security: RahulThe suspended members are Congress’ Manickam Tagore, Gurjeet Aujla, Amarinder Raja Warring, Hibi Eden, Prashant Padole, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Dean Kuriakose, and CPI-M’s S Venkatesan.After the Tuesday morning session was adjourned owing to the opposition’s demand that the govt discuss the Indo-US trade deal, Rahul Gandhi picked up from Monday when his insistence on speaking on Naravane’s unpublished book elicited a red flag from the govt.Speaker Om Birla ruled that the LOP could not cite the book and should speak on motion of thanks.On Tuesday, Rahul said he was authenticating the press article he was referring to for Naravane’s book, as was asked by the Chair, but parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said the Chair had ruled that he could not speak on the issue. As Rahul again started his speech with the contentious subject, Presiding Officer Krishna Prasad Tenneti overruled him and called the next speaker from SP Uttam Patel to speak, who refused.He moved to Shatabdi Roy of TMC who too did not speak. When BJP ally TDP’s Harish Balayogi started his speech, the angry opposition members trooped into the well. While they raised slogans, Prashant Padole climbed on the secretary general’s table, even as some members threw papers at the Chair, which forced the house to be adjourned. On resumption, Presiding Officer Dilip Saikia suspended the eight MPs. It led to bedlam and the house was adjourned for the day.In a protest letter to the Speaker, Rahul Gandhi said a member can refer to a document in his speech after authenticating it, and the refusal to let him speak suggests “there is a deliberate attempt to prevent me as LOP from speaking on matters of national security”.During the fracas, presiding officer Tenneti objected to Congress MP K C Venugopal’s use of “yaar” (pal) in his angry interventions to back Rahul Gandhi.
