From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Seven Congress MPs including Gaurav Gogoi have been suspended from the rest of the budget session for the ruckus created in Parliament for the last three days over a discussion on last week’s violence in Delhi and other places.
The Speaker has also accepted the government’s call to form a committee and examine their conduct for possible disqualification, sources said. Snatching papers from the Speaker’s table is utmost disrespect to the Chair. Those who snatched papers from the Chair, their membership should be terminated,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi later said.
Reacting to the suspension Gogoi said that the Speaker can suspend him but he also fix a time to discuss the riots.” Show your accountability towards the very people who voted for you, “he said.
Criticising the “harsh” step as “revenge politics”, Congress’s leader of the house Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the party will “not let up”. “This is a government decision, not decision by Speaker.
Following, the ruckus, Lok Sabha passed a motion suspending seven Congress members for the remaining period of the Budget session for their “gross misconduct” after they snatched papers from the Speaker’s table and “utter disregard” for House rules. As soon as the House met at 3 pm following an adjournment, Meenakshi Lekhi, who was presiding the House, named Gaurav Gogoi, T N Prathapan, Dean Kuriakose, Manicka Tagore, Rajmohan Unnithan, Benny Behanan and Gurjeet Singh Aujla.
Opposition parties, which have been demanding a discussion in House on the violence, have been hugely upset over the Speaker’s refusal to hold it any time before Holi, arguing that the time for such a discussion is not right. The motion was passed by a voice vote amid protests by opposition members.
