As Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders protested against suspension of their MPs, BJP Parliamentary Party today accused it of being a “destructive” opposition and passed a resolution against its “obstructionist and anti-development” policies.
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Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 25 Congress members for five days for “persistently, wilfully obstructing” the House.
Today, Rahul Gandhi said the voice of the opposition is “being suppressed in Parliament”.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said parties like the Trinamool Congress, the Left and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had pledged their support to his party and vowed to boycott the Lok Sabha.
Top Congress leaders like Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajeev Shukla are also taking part in the protest. She conveniently forgot that Speaker Mrs Meira Kumar under the United Progressive Alliance dispensation had on 23 August 2013 suspended 12 MPs (four from the Telugu Desam Party and eight from the INC) for five sittings for disrupting Parliament.
“I am not asking for their resignation, the Congress is not asking for their resignation but the people of India are asking for their resignation”. Sources said Congress never entertained the idea of compromise, as much because of the belief that its protest is in line with the precedent set by BJP as for the fact that it would have made resumption of protest hard on rejoining the lower House. “Congress is trying to defame them in the public”, he said.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajn named several Congress MPs for bringing placards and causing “grave disorder”.
Sonia had ripped into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on “monumental corruption” at this morning’s meeting of the Congress parliamentary party, but many insiders privately voiced concern about the outcome of their tactic of disruption. “Let’s see”, said Yechury addressing a press conference along with party leader in Lok Sabha P Karunakaran.
The whip is to ensure that the government does not succeed in getting measures passed taking advantage of the absence of opposition members, they said.
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This is the first time that such a large number of MPs are being suspended.
